Leslie Barnard Booth- I Am We: How Crows Come Together to Survive

Calling all bird-lovers and anyone curious about crows! Join Leslie Barnard Booth as she reads her new picture book, I Am We: How Crows Come Together to Survive, and learn how crows collaborate to find food, solve problems, and stay safe from predators. Find out how communication and curiosity shape the lives of crows. Then play a guessing game to explore crow vocalizations, and try your hand at some truly tricky puzzles that crows have been able to solve.

What's it like to be a crow? Many regard corvids as harbingers of doom—a stereotype that belies their rich sense of community. As this fascinating and edifying work notes, crows look out for each other by traveling in groups and are intensely aware of their surroundings; indeed, they have more going on than your average bird. Narrated in the collective first person by a M**der of crows ("I am not I at all"), Barnard Booth's verse flows beautifully, slinking across the page with a determination that mirrors the intentionality of her feathered subjects:

"I spill across the sky like ink—

fill the night with jagged cries.

I have one thousand eyes.

I see all.

Know all.

Am all."

Finkeldey's inky art depicts landscapes both urban and rural, set against backdrops of deep grays, blues, blacks, and orangey pinks, providing close-ups of individual animals, along with breathtaking aerial shots of the crows resting on a sturdy tree. On a particularly inspired and entirely unexpected spread, several crows dissolve into a cape worn by a cackling figure in a pointed hat: "Caw-caaaaw! / We must sound like witches to you." Both text and art set an intriguingly ominous tone even as the book establishes crows' commitment to cooperation and communal living; readers will eagerly dive into the generous backmatter.

Leslie Barnard Booth writes lyrical picture books about science and nature. She is the author of One Day This Tree Will Fall, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, ALA-ALSC Notable Children's Book, and National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Outstanding Science Trade Book; A Stone Is a Story, a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, Crystal Kite Award Winner, and NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book; and, most recently, I Am We: How Crows Come Together to Survive. Leslie grew up in Washington state, among giant trees and rugged mountains. She has taught at preschool, elementary, and college levels and holds an MFA in creative writing and an MS in education from the University of Oregon. She is also a mom to two daughters, and her children often inspire her creative work. Thanks to them, she has relearned what children seem to know intuitively: that every snail, stone, and clump of moss is full of wonder, if only we take the time to look.

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