Flett, Julie. Birdsong. Greystone Kids, 2019.

Muted tones create a soft, feathery texture that mimics the somber mood of Julie Flett's Birdsong. It is springtime in this double-page spread, a season known for rebirth, renewal, and new life. The winter snow has melted away and snowdrop flowers have emerged from the ground. White flowers blossom and green leaves sprout on the trees. The uncut grasses on the hill overlap and stretch in every direction toward the soft pink sky. But, for Katherena, the book's main character, this season is about losing a friend.

Katherena, located near the bottom of page on the verso, looks down, with her arms folded together across her chest. Her gate suggests that she has waded slowly through the sea of swirly, swishy grass to get there. The vast green space conveys the immensity of the "ache in [her] heart." Looking at Katherena, captured in stillness amid the flowing grass, the reader can almost feel the grass moving in the wind, waiting for its first cut. The feathery grass overlaps Katherena's boots and stands out among the otherwise flat objects in the spread. Doonan describes texture in an illustration as the ability to "know it through the pads of our fingers and the palms of our hands" (31). The varied dull green tones that draw attention to the length and movement of the grass, scattered in spots of light and dark around the hill, create the spread's tactile feel. At the horizon, the tops of the grass feel like fluffy pieces of cotton, bracing for the setting sun.

Works Cited

Doonan, Jane. Looking at Pictures in Picture Books. Thimble, 1993.

Flett, Julie. Birdsong. Greystone Kids, 2019.