Clever Crow (Hardcover)

For young bird-watchers and enthusiasts of the natural world comes a beautiful, eye-opening picture book about the familiar but ever-surprising crow.

Crows may not have flashy feathers, beautiful songs, or fancy flying skills, but if a crow looks at you with its small, round eye, you can be sure that it’s thinking, as these birds have very big brains. Did you know that crows will use a stick to poke into a crevice to tease out tasty bugs? Or that they like to play like kids by tumbling down a snowy roof? Or that they remember where they hide their food—but sometimes only pretend to bury a treat to fool other birds? Original and accessible, with Chris Butterworth’s welcoming text and gorgeous, expressive artwork from Olivia Lomenech Gill, Clever Crow is sure to generate newfound respect for these unassuming creatures that young readers come across every day.

Reviews

A picture book as intelligent as its subject—though a good deal more sophisticated-looking, thanks to the muted palette and distempered quality of Olivia Lomenech Gill’s mixed-media artwork. Chris Butterworth’s text, meanwhile, flows nicely in paragraphs that are printed in varying sizes, so that they can be read one after another in a continuous narrative or browsed through a page or two at a time. . . . [A] fine work of nonfiction.
—The Wall Street Journal

An admiring tribute to the habits and smarts of the corvid clan. Gill’s standout mixed-media illustrations feature individual and group portraits of numerous crows and crow cousins, stylishly rendered in fine, exact detail. These visuals, along with a gallery of eggs, will draw the eye first, but young audiences will find Butterworth’s rapturous observations, delivered in multiple sizes of type, likewise worth lingering over. . . as lively and appealing as its subject.
—Kirkus Reviews

Noting that crows use tools, can trick other birds when stashing food, and know how to play, this assemblage of corvid portraits form a stately, intelligent survey of crow types.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The mixed-media illustrations combine realistic-looking crows against soft backgrounds with a watercolor wash that hints at avian majesty.
—The Horn Book

Butterworth proposes that what [crows] lack in flashiness they more than make up for in cleverness. . . . The varied elements of the mixed media art provide a larger picture of the bird in all its ordinary-extraordinary glory.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

The sprightly text and gorgeous art in this ode to crows — full of glistening black feathers and ebony eyes with the glint of intelligence — will encourage readers to think again about an easily overlooked bird.
—The Virginian-Pilot

Beautifully illustrated and written in an accessible way, 'Clever Crows' is an eye-opening look at crows and guarantees you’ll never look at crows the same way again.
—Reading Eagle

About the Author

Chris Butterworth is the author of Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea, illustrated by John Lawrence, The Things That I LOVE about TREES, illustrated by Charlotte Voake, See What a Seal Can Do, illustrated by Kate Nelms, and How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? The Story of Food, illustrated Lucia Gaggiotti. Chris Butterworth lives in Cornwall, England.

Olivia Lomenech Gill is the illustrator of Where My Wellies Take Me by Michael and Clare Morpurgo, which was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal, as well as Michael Morpurgo’s Muck and Magic and J. K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Olivia Lomenech Gill lives in Brittany, France.