A Peek at Beaks is an entertaining and informative book about birds. The book is beautifully illustrated. It explains the concept of biodiversity in an easily understood way for young children. One page shows a common tool and the next page provides the bird and beak that functions in a similar manner. Young children and even parents can learn from this book. Birds are easily observed and as close as outside your door allowing children to see for themselves the concepts presented in this book.

Beautiful illustrations and very informative! Great for all ages as you can provide as much or as little information as is appropriate for your little, with even more information available in the back for more advanced readers.

The illustrations are vivid and the format (some question and answer, basic descriptions that are short and sweet) keeps the reader engaged as they learn more on each page.

This past weekend, my 4-year old sat in my lap and had me tell him the name of every single bird pictured in What It’s Like to Be a Bird by David Allen Sibley. So this was a perfect book to follow that up with, and vastly more age appropriate! The bird illustrations in this book are just lovely. They have a kind of Charley Harper-ish quality to them. There were so many things in this book that even I didn’t know! I loved the comparisons of different kinds of beaks to common tools., and my kid giggled at the jackhammer beak. I look forward to seeking out a hard copy of this book!

I think that the "What kind of bird has a beak that ... " pages are rather weird. The pages with a silhouette of a bird with the tool silhouette where a beak would be. I think it would be much better to have these pages with a sketch of a child sipping a drink with a straw or of a man using a jackhammer or of a child using a butterfly net or a mother using a strainer to drain noodles (as opposed to a silhouette of the tool on the face of the bird).

Honestly want to rate this as a 2, but everything else in the book was fine.

I really don't feel that these comments should be provided on GoodReads or on other sites. I hope you honestly consider my suggestion.

If you want me to put my rating and comments on GoodReads, please let me know and I won't hesitate.

Change. This book is about change, and the differences you can see if you just consider bills and beaks on birds. Each bird is introduced with a question, illustrated by a standard bird in silhouette with a bonkers tool on its schnozz – a fishing net, a pair of pliers, a desk fan! We then see the proper bird in all its variance and get told what their beak is used for – tearing and rending like a hawk, stabbing and excising like a heron's, or – well, I'll leave the desk fan as a surprise. It doesn't seem likely that a whole book could be made from this one niche subject, but we'll come to that. As it is, the text serves very well to bring differences in birds to mind, and young fans of avian life will like this a lot. The illustrations are quite wonderful, and seldom have the feel of being the collages they actually are.

Change. This reviewer is tentative in suggesting he's been the cause of change, but one thing I've said multiple times in the last few years is that if you are going to give a book that shows variance in birds, or superlatives in animals, or just the plain variety of life on earth, for cryin' out loud include the page necessary that tells the reader that it's down to evolution. And strike me down, this does just that. OK, it does spend two pages on it, but it does it expertly well – no confusion, no irrelevance, no allowing for doubt in the matter. I feel like giving this five stars for doing just this one simple thing. It certainly proves me right that any book can do the same, and any that don't will lose stars, grades and ratings in future. This is an American product, and the fact this does it proves to me it's not a creationist campaign that stops it happening. It's just laziness. Either way, its inclusion here does make this book lean towards being something about the bigger picture and not solely about beaks, which I think is one more reason why it should be a success. A strong four stars.

Using her familiar question-asking style, author Sara Levine successfully engages the reader in looking carefully at both words and illustrations to come up with answers. Beginning with the question, “Have you ever imagined you were a bird?” Readers learn that birds have a ready-made tool on their faces—a beak—and they are introduced to how various birds use their beaks as tools. . Colorful illustrations assist the reader in generating ideas. Readers emerge with a good understanding of the functions of various bird beaks.

As the book continues, the more focused Q & As begin: “Can you think of a bird that has a beak shaped like a straw?” Turn the page and see a hummingbird, learn how it uses its beak, and what animals have a similar beak. This is a well-written book, with colorful, informative illustrations. The format is fun to read and the illustrations a a joy to look at. Keep these books coming! They make science a treat.