Goldfinches

Sweet vibrantly illuminates an incisive and joyful work from the late poet Oliver in a picture book that takes the feel of a naturalist's notebook. Accompanying the author's evocative lines about goldfinches' use of thistle down for nest building, an abundance of techniques and materials mingle in bursting collages that capture the poem's midsummer setting, featuring bold pink thistle pods, teal and turquoise leaves, and citrus yellow skies. In some places, a palette of watercolor paints sits alongside the renderings, underscoring the book's multi-layered portrayal of process--the finches' and Oliver's alike. In other spots, notes call out scientific information about the birds ("Female goldfinch builds the nest, lashing it to branches with spider silk"). The finches themselves are shown in varied degrees of detail, frequently observed by a pale-skinned figure who reappears throughout with pencil and notebook in hand. Accompanying the work's concluding line ("Have you ever been so happy in your life?"), inky skies full of seeds and stars tether nest-building and art-making for a wondrous close that points to the generative meaning that can arise from paying attention. An artist's note concludes. Ages 4--8. (Mar.)

The Pulitzer Prize--winning poet's tribute to the relationship between goldfinches and thistles finds new life in picture-book form. In languorously unfolding phrases, Oliver, who died in 2019, notes that the birds wait all summer for the thistle flowers to disseminate their seeds. The finches then use the fluffy, silky pappus--which, attached to the seeds, helps them disperse in the wind--to line their nests, while the seeds themselves feed both parents and young. Sweet ingeniously nestles hand-lettered finch facts into spreads that teem with vibrant color charts keyed to the poem's imagery. She depicts the poet as a young woman, wandering fields and woods, notebook at hand and trailed by a dog, as a diverse group of birdwatchers look on. Using vintage papers, old maps, and photographed objects including a nest, the artist subdivides her layered compositions into multiple rectangles, inviting close observation and delighted discovery, while reserving plenty of airy space for Oliver's poem to shine. Sweet's palette, rich in pinks and yellows, derives from the bright plumage of male goldfinches and the brilliance of flowering thistles, "each bud / a settlement of riches-- / a coin of reddish fire." Oliver concludes: "Is it necessary to say any more? / Have you heard them singing in the wind…? // Have you ever been so happy in your life?" A superlative union of verse and visual art. (text of poem, Oliver's handwritten bird list, illustrator's note, quote from Oliver, sources)(Picture book/poetry. 5-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.