Robyn Boid

Gr 1–3—Robyn is a round, bluish bird who lives on a ledge high above a university. As she scans the skyline and sees all the amazing shapes and details of the buildings below, she decides to become an architect in order to create the perfect place for an egg. Using sticks, she learns to craft nests into all shapes, sizes, and styles, including buildings with domes, spires, parapets, balustrades, and keystones as inspirations. As she learns about symmetry, scale, and texture, she then applies those concepts to cantilevers, towers, and pagodas, looking for the best place to safely shelter and protect an egg. There are numerous alliterative phrases in the story ("pedestals, patterns, and plinths") and plays on words ("egg-xactly," "egg-xpert") that make for a fun read-aloud and the illustrations of buildings, done in stick-lines, are fascinating to look at. Hidden within the illustrations are 14 worms, many of which blend well into the designs, and 34 blue speckled eggs, giving readers a reason to return again and again. This book would serve as a great introduction to vocabulary specific to architecture (there is a brief glossary at the back), and as an entertaining read.