The books work! If you are an adult reading this website, you are probably used to buying children's books with whimsical illustrations or cartoons with big bold colours. These books are a bit different. After reading the story to your child/grandchild/nephew/niece, they will be outside looking for Mr and Mrs Blackbird and the rest of the cast. They will also want you to read the story to them again! 

If you want to introduce young children to the natural world around them then this book is for you. The book makes a great present for kids. We thought the books would work with 3-8 year olds, but children as young as 1 year old like these books too.

The Series

The first book 'Where's our Breakfast, Mr Blackbird?' co-stars Mr and Mrs Sparrow and Mr and Mrs Blackbird...with a walk on part for a red admiral butterfly.

The second book 'A treat for Mr Chaffinch' co-stars Mr and Mrs Chaffinch, Mr and Mrs Blue Tit  and the speckled wood butterfly with caterpillar and chrysalis.

The third book 'Mr Goldfinch gets a shock' features Mr and Mrs Goldfinch and Mr and Mrs Dunnock, together with the comma butterfly. This time the book also showcases a few bugs: the violet ground beetle, the seven spot ladybird and the brown-lipped banded snail. (This was Richard's idea. Hazel didn't know there was such a thing as the brown-lipped banded snail!).

The fourth book 'Mrs Starling makes a change' features Mr and Mrs Starling and Mr and Mrs Long-tailed Tit, with the small tortoise shell butterfly, the white tailed bumble bee, the lesser stag beetle and the garden spider. This book also introduces Young Starling and Young Long-tailed Tit. 

The fifth book 'Baby Moorhen makes a splash!' moves away from garden birds and follows the family as they visit a lake. It features tufted ducks and moorhens, plus, of course, all the bugs that Richard has chosen. 

The Team

Hazel Douglas, the author, usually writes academic books for grown-ups, but when she couldn't find any storybooks for children about birds, decided to write some herself. She tells these stories from the point of view of the birds, but each book also includes the family who feeds the birds. As we get to know different birds, we also get to know the family.

Richard Johnson, the illustrator, began his quest as a birder and an artist at the age of ten. He has illustrated the field guides to birds of Bolivia and Argentina. His lovely and detailed illustrations bring the story alive, as well as showing exactly what the male and female of each species looks like. The last page sometimes shows the difference between the summer and winter plumage of one of the birds.

The designer, for the first two books, Bill Mayblin, is looking forward to his grandchild being a little older, so that he can read the storybooks to him (and show him the design, of course!). Sally Geeve has taken over the baton from Bill upon his retirement and has designed the third and fourth books.

The publisher, Jill Rogers, of Jill Rogers Associates has found herself taking a sudden interest in the birds in her garden.  

This series will enthuse your child to notice and cherish the birds around us.

If you have bought a book, we would love to know what your child's reaction was to it. If you have time, do email us on info@mybirds.org.uk or via the 'Contact us' page and also let us know if we can post your story on the 'Your Comments' page of this website.