Birds on the Brain was really very cute. I could see it being read in a classroom in preparation for a bird count. There were a lot of great lessons in there- both things learned in school and in life. I love how it feels like it's actually written from a kid's perspective. The main character, Reeni, takes things so literally sometimes and does not always understand other people's point of view (which is of course true for adults too). It's nice that she takes some time to explain certain vocabulary, especially bird lingo.

I wonder if Reeni is on the spectrum at all? There was a mention of her having “movie mania” before and then going on to “chase hawks and sparrows” that made me think she might hyperfixate.
One character I loved was Book Uncle. I hope to be a figure like this to my students. I love when kids know me as “Garden Nicole” because they remember me for something fun and educational.

The stakes in this book were age- and book length- appropriate, I thought. I like how there were multiple problems to solve at once, and they all interconnected in some way. The book had very strong themes of both social and environmental justice. Some lines were so spot-on, like “Why do grown-ups use their precious votes to elect rogues and scoundrels? And why should they always get their way?” A lot of things mentioned in the story were true and meaningful in any culture.

As a reader and birder who has participated in the global bird count this book is centered around, I appreciated the overall dual message of the importance of literacy and of urban wildlife, specifically birds. “We all need birds, whether we know it or not. They work hard for us all the time”. And we should work just as hard for them by educating people about their myriad benefits and protecting their habitat.

I received this title from NetGalley for an honest review. It's a great middle school-aged book about friendship and making a difference. I loved the stories of the characters and, of course, the birdwatching. Fun read.

This was such a great, fun, and educational book! The illustrations were beautiful - which is big for me in children’s books. There is so much to learn about Al the different kinds of birds and this story is told in a fun way that adults will enjoy reading to their littles!

I've been waiting to read this sequel to the award-winning Book Uncle and Me and this story met all of my expectations. Birds on the Brain, follows bird enthusiast Reeni and her best friend Yasmin as they rally their community to save their city's bird count event from a mayor determined to shut it down. The novel is fast-paced with colorful and interesting details woven throughout, This is a great book as a read aloud in grades 3-5 to highlight the importance of advocacy for environmental protections.

Thank you NetGalley and Groundwood Books for an ARC of this title.

Reeni is a young school student in an unnamed Indian city, and above all she's fascinated with birding. She learns that there's a pan-Indian or even a Global Bird Count upcoming but somehow the city authorities are attempting to discourage people from participating. Apparently, last year's numbers were lower than expected, which suggests the city's policies haven't been so environmentally-friendly... what can be better than to shut the bird count at all, right? So Reeni uses an opportunity to reach out to fellow residents of her neighborhood prompted by a school assignment to conduct a survey on a topic of interest, so as to raise awareness of the upcoming bird count and generally of the importance of birds in urban environment.

This book can be a great primer for middle-grade reader to the topics of environmental activism and civic engagement. What I really liked about it is that it avoided the pitfalls of some of similar books in which the cause is "for all good and against all bad," so the baddies are just pure evil. Instead, here the reader can encounter together with Reeni and her friends that sometimes you need to balance between equally benign goals, and if someone doesn't care enough that's because they don't know about the need to care yet or are occupied with caring about other very important things.

<blockquote>"Reeni, it's one bird's nest against sustainable power for a whole building full of people." [...] "Can't you just - I don't know - shoo it away or something?"</blockquote>

And as a birder myself, I can attest that the book really reads informed by the birding subculture (though without excessively complicated details); it's not just "well, that would be a good thing to right about."

The book is a second in the series but if you haven't happened to read the first one (just like me), it doesn't require familiarity with the first installment at all in order to enjoy the story.

What a fun book my kids and I read before bedtime! They LOVED this story. The illustrations were beautiful and just such a fun story. Well done!