A Bird on My Hand
A Bird on My Hand by Mary Bevis and illustrations by Consie Powell
Winner of the 2014 Midwest Book award for children’s picture books.
This is a book written from the experience of our family, and particularly about our mother, Helen Jones Palmquist, and her love of chickadees. Helen was a Covenant minister’s wife who embodied hospitality to all, including birds and other critters of the Northwoods.
My sister, Mary Bevis, has taken our personal family experience and broadened it into a book about how to respect nature and how to enjoy hand-feeding birds. Although the characters in this book are generic, the inspiration came from our family experience.
Being limited in mobility by the side effects of diabetes, our mother spent much time on the deck of the family cabin on Hagerman Lake, hand-taming chickadees and chipmunks. She had them each individually named. With her patience she was able to pass this gift of bird trust onto her grandchildren, who remember this legacy of offering up an open palm with a sunflower seed, encouraging a bird to feel safe enough to take the offering. Chipmunks are not as shy, but that is another story.
The book includes information on chickadees and hand-feeding tips. The illustrations are artfully cheerful, like those little black capped chickadees. Hope you might enjoy this book and find in it something to share with your family.