Silly Baby Magpie!
Jill Morris
Heather Gall

Greater Glider, 2003
32pp., pbk., $14.30
0947304592

In a big tree in our school playground Mr Magpie lives with his family. Most of the time they are happy and they fly around the oval and watch us play.

But in springtime they are scary because they swoop us. Some children wear helmets because they are afraid of getting hurt. Our teacher says that they swoop us because they are protecting their babies in the nest. They think we might hurt them.

This year our teacher decided to help us learn about the magpies so we wouldn't be so frightened. She helped us to read Silly Baby Magpie! so we could find out more.

We learned about what it was like to be a baby magpie and having to eat worms and insects and lizards, and trying to fly. We even learned about how they poo in the nest and their mums have to clean it up.

We think baby magpies are like baby people so it is no wonder their parents protect them. Our parents protect us too.

We learned about how magpies listen to hear the bugs underground and they like to play games too. We learned they have to be afraid of dogs and cats and dingoes and how they all huddle together at night time so they are safe.

We really liked this book because we could join in with it and we even made a liittle play from it. Some od us were poeple and some of us were the baby magpie. The pictures were very real and we liked the little boxes with the facts that told us why the baby magpie was doing what he did. And Mrs M. played the bird songs on the piano!

We think this is a great book to help children understand about magpies - but they are still scary when they swoop you.

2LM, Canberra