Diana Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long, the author/illustrator team who produced a series of beautiful and informative picture books exploring various aspects of natural history for children—An Egg Is Quiet, A Seed Is Sleepy, A Butterfly Is Patient and A Rock Is Lively—return in this fifth title, this time examining nests. As with the previous titles in this vein, there is a dual format here, with a simple, poetic macro-narrative—"A nest is noisy. It is a nursery of chirp-chirping... buzzing... squeaking... peep-peeping... bubbling... babies"—and a more informative micro-narrative, giving more details about the diverse range of nests being presented. From birds to hornets, cactus-protected to stream-bed-located, created from gathered materials or from substances made by the parents themselves, a wealth of different nests is explored...

As with its predecessors, A Nest Is Noisy pairs an entertaining and educational narrative with absolutely gorgeous illustrations. I appreciated the fact that a variety of nests were included, as I think some children may incorrectly assume that only avian species raise their young in this way. I also appreciated the way in which the narrative emphasizes both the commonalities and differences in these various nests—a duality to be found in all of these nature books from Aston and Long. The artwork is, as always with Sylvia Long, a pleasure to peruse, with gorgeous use of color, and beautifully-captured animals and nests. The decorative endpapers—a lovely feature of all of Aston and Long's books—here show nests at the front and hatched young creatures at the rear, but here they have been placed in interior spreads, with more generic decorative endpapers (with what looks like nest material) at the actual front and rear. I would imagine this design decision was made because otherwise the beautifully decorative endpapers might be partially obscured by dust-jackets, which in certain circumstances (such as with library books) cannot be lifted. All in all, this was a worthy follow-up to its creators' other books, and has whetted my appetite to track down the two subsequent titles (I have a little catching up to do). Recommended to young nature lovers, and to anyone who is an admirer of Sylvia Long's amazing artwork. ( )

The art is lovely, and I like the way encourages us to think beyond birds when we think about nests.

This author/illustrator team is fantastic. One might hear "nest" and think only of birds, but they also include honeybees, alligators, fox squirrels, hornets, lampreys, tree frogs, gourami (fish), sea turtles, platypuses, army ants, and prairie dogs, as well as many different kinds of birds. Watercolor illustrations of both the animals and the nests are beautifully detailed. ( )

This book talks about different kinds of nests. It talks about how birds create nests, and even animals like orangutans. It gives different facts about sizes of nests depending on the animal and materials that they use. I think this would be best used with younger elementary students who are learning about animals. I think it would be cool to implement this and read this before an observation time. I think it would be cool to have a bird nest (obviously not everyone may be able to come by one) and have students make observations about what they notice from the book. Or, it would be cool to have students engage in a conversation about how the nests work with the type of animal they are. I think it is cool because it shows animals from all around the world and a variety (not just birds). ( )

A Nest Is Noisy is about all different types of animals and the places in which they raise their young. This book has some really beautiful illustrations and also provides a lot of scientific information about the nests or homes that a variety of animals build. This book is pretty information heavy so i wouldn't use it as a read aloud but I would use it as a part of a provocation about habitats. the illustrations are very detailed so students could get a lot of information just by looking at the images. Because the authors used a lot of scientific language this book would be really good for pulling out vocabulary that is relevant to different habitats or animals. ( )