Brave Baby Hummingbird

Two baby Allen’s hummingbirds, alone in a coin-size nest, thrive with human assistance in an informational rescue story that hints at fledglings’ fortitude. Montgomery narrates earnestly from the perspective of a male bird emerging from eggs with his sister, “the size of bumblebees.” But when the breeze that suggests their mother’s arrival stops, “We are scared, cold, and hungry.” The next morning, a human hand cradles the babies, and human lips blow from the page margin, simulating wingbeats. “I’m not a mother hummingbird, but I’ve spent ten years learning how to help orphans like you,” they are told, before moving to a Hummingbird Hotel that affords them safety to test their wings, sip nectar, and eat fruit flies until they’re ready to re-enter the wild. As they migrate south and return to their birthplace, meticulous illustrations by Bozic, crisply detailed in acrylic paint on wood, accurately depict the duo across habitats and alongside other hummingbird species. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)