The Artful Bird

Starred review from April 1, 2011
Bird jokes dont fly here. Ignoring the slew of impossible puns, first-time author and former middle-school teacher Glassenberg develops one smashing crafts book that will be very difficult to best. Its about soft sculptures, 16 in all, of different birds, some lifelike, others deliberately fantastic. Though needed materials could simply be a sewing machine and random bits of fabric and thread, the gull, owl, penguin, and others require more than an eye on the presser foot and understanding embroidery. At its purest, each piece demands well-honed crafting capacities, including a good grasp of textile and color combinations, knowledge of quilting and other decorative stitchery, and the fundamentals of 3-D stitching and form development. Glassenberg begins with a level playing field, educating readers on the necessities of materials and tools, then moves to a detailed pictorial explanation of bird making and, finally, the projects. At the end are conversations with and the works of four bird artists, all of whom concentrate on soft sculpture. If the project subjects arent necessarily anatomically correct, they are all, whether a vintage-fabric-encrusted flamingo or a harsh black-on-black-on-black crow, eminently collectible.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)