Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution

Avian allies find an inventive way to disrupt screen time in this uneven picture book. On the streets of New Orleans, “Everyone was looking down.// All around, faces faced the ground,” and when humans try to look up, “RING DING BUZZ/ their heads got stuck” in their devices. From the power lines above, roosting birds, many wearing human accessories, wonder “what happened to the world they loved.” Change is soon on the wing when pigeon Fontaine, who sports an orange beanie, “got so tired of all the insanity./ He dreamed up all the ways/ he could wake up humanity.” He soon enlists the other birds, and the group determines that “each time one of them saw a screen,/ they all let loose/ a natural stream.” Following Fontaine’s cry of “VIVA LA REVOLUTION!” the birds nail their targets until a child suggests, “I think these birds want us to give these phones a rest.” Verse lines by Gondolfi don’t always scan in this lengthy work of fowl play, but Romanick’s fluid, black-lined illustrations lend a street-smart tone to the cautionary tale. Humans are portrayed with various body types and skin tones. Ages 5–7. (Apr.)