Stop Feedin’ da Boids!

New to Brooklyn, Swanda thinks that feeding the birds from her fire escape will help ease her transition from life in the countryside. But context is everything: in the city, this means an onslaught of pestering, pooping pigeons, and her neighbors, a panoply of ethnicities, are united in their irritation. Pratt (The Branch) provides a visceral sense of the problem in a gorgeous, eerie, and practically wordless spread that plunges readers into a sea of blue-green feathered heads and piercing, orange-rimmed eyes. An intervention is called for: “Swanda,” her neighbors cry in their inimitable Brooklynese, “you gotta stop feedin’ da boids!” Sage’s (Mr. Beast) story meanders a bit, and Swanda herself isn’t much of a presence—although having a faithful, giant dog named Waldo by her side at all times helps. But in the end it doesn’t matter: the story is a marvelous tribute to a sense of place. Pratt’s drawings, awash in blazing pink and orange, capture a bustling and decidedly unhipster Brooklyn that welcomes big personalities of all kinds. Ages 3–7. (Apr.)