Middle-Grade Books About Birds

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

I have read this book many times. It is a comical story set in the 1930s. Mr. Popper has a wife in two children. He is an absentminded housepainter who dreams of polar exploration. He has sent a letter to the explorer Captain Cook and to his surprise receives a penguin in return. No one who lives in their town has ever seen a penguin. The Popper’s life is quickly transformed and when the penguin, whom they call Captain Cook, gets lonely they find a female penguin to cheer him up. Soon they have 12 penguins and decide to train them in a stage animal act.

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

A story of the friendship between a mute trumpeter swan named Louis and a boy named Sam Beaver. Sam, age 11, found a trumpeter swan nest while camping in Canada with his father. One of the cygnets is Louis. Louis’ father is very talkative. The swans migrate to Upper Red Rock Lake Montana for the winter. Louis wants to learn to read and finds Sam who takes him to school. Louis spends 1 1/2 years with Sam. Louis can read and write now, but that doesn’t help him communicate with other swans. When Louis’ father steals a trumpet from a music store to help him communicate with swans. Louis asks Sam for help again, this time he needs help learning to play the trumpet and finding a way to pay for it. Sam, who is now 13, is a junior camp counselor at Camp Kookooskoos and gets Louis a job as the camp bugler. Louis has several more jobs and earns a lot of money, but how will he get the money to the music store?

Gay-Neck by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

The author and Gay-Neck tell the story. In part 1 the author tells of his experiences owning and training carrier pigeons in India. He specifically tells of a pigeon he calls Gay-Neck. He trained Gay-Neck by taking him farther and farther away from home so that he could learn his way back. The book tells of the deaths of Gay-Neck’s parents. Part 2 is about Gay-Neck’s experiences in Europe as a carrier pigeon during the Great War. Gay-Neck was wounded and returned to India to heal and overcome his fears. The story is told from a Hindu perspective.

I Discover Columbus by Robert Lawson

The complete title is I Discover Columbus a True Chronicle of the Great Admiral and his Finding of the New World, Narrated by the Venerable Parrot Aurelio, who Shared in the Glorious Venture, Set Down and Illustrated by Robert Lawson. The parrot Aurelio met Chris when Aurelio was blown away in a storm and ended up in Spain. Columbus’ voyage was just Aurelio’s way of getting back home. Aurelio did not have a high opinion of Columbus. Queen Isabella and Aurelio scheme to make Chris go on the voyage.

There’s an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George

I have read this book two or three times. This book is set in California in the 1990s. Borden Watson is mad. His father Leon who works for the lumber company is out of a job because the United States Forest Service says that lumber companies are taking too many trees and ruining the habitat for species such as spotted owls. Borden wants to kill spotted owls so that his father can cut down the trees. When he finds a baby owl on the ground he takes him home thinking he is a barred owl. He names him Bardy and the family comes together to learn how to care for him. 

Ali and the Golden Eagle by Wayne Grover

This book is a nonfiction account of the author’s time in Saudi Arabia in the 1970s. He gets to know Ali, a 13-year-old Muslim boy who lives in an isolated village in a canyon. The men in Ali’s village hunt with falcons. Wayne gives Ali the exciting idea of training a golden eagle. Wayne captures a baby eagle for Ali. After many months of training Ali and the eagle Samson form a remarkable bond that brings the attention of the outside world to their village. This attention changes their way of life.