The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Title:  The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Author & Illustrator:  Amy Tan

Publication Information:  Knopf. 2024. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0593536134 / 978-0593536131

Rating:   ★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "These pages are a record of my obsession with birds."

Favorite Quote:  "For birds, each day is a chance to survive."

Amy Tan is an award winning author. This book is a departure from her prior work. From the author's website... "In 2016, Amy began taking nature journaling classes with John Muir Laws. During the pandemic shutdown, she spent long hours observing the behavior of wild birds in her backyard. Her editor, Dan Halpern, suggested she turn those pencil sketches, colored portraits and journal notes into an illustrated book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, published in April 2024 by Knopf."

From interviews with the author about why this project came about when it did: Amy Tan is of Chinese American heritage, born to immigrant parents. In her words, in 2016, racism in our nation was rampant, and she was the target of that racism because of her heritage. "The world was ugly, and I needed to find beauty again."

The idea of nature providing beauty, comfort, and solace is one that resonates with me. Although I am not a birder per se, the idea of retreating into nature for calm and peace resonates with me. The lesson and reminder to us to be good stewards of our world resonates with me.

For me, long walks and discovery of all our local parks became a survival mechanism during the pandemic. The author's birding adventures continued during the pandemic. That being said, she has the luxury of a home in the San Francisco hills with a view of the bay, a large garden, a wall of windows, and the means to create a green roof. That is not most people's reality, but it is a lovely reality to share.

As the title suggests, this book - the words and the images - are all about birds. If that is not your thing, you may not be the reader for this book. The book is structured into short, date and time stamped entries, each focused on a particular sighting.

The goal of this book is not to relate the descriptions and illustrations to humans. It is not to anthropomorphize the birds. Nevertheless, the journal entries do ponder bird behavior - the adult birds and the caretaking of young, the competition amongst like birds and between species, the impact of environmental changes on the lives of birds, the communal reaction to a bird in distress, the lifecycle of birds, and so much more. Each one of these ideas has relevance to the human world.

Of course, fiction or nonfiction, Amy Tan's writing and her ability to draw me into this world of birds and keep turning pages makes this a memorable book.

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