Crow
Oh, shiny—black and noisy crow,
you are the loudest bird I know,
gathered with your friends in trees,
cawing harshly on the breeze.
You're not a vegetarian,
for you eat frogs, worms,
mice, and carrion.
When you find food,
you call your friends —
your cawing never seems to end.
And could this fact be much absurder?
A group of you is called a murder!
In winter roosts ten thousand deep,
what you murder is our sleep.

Common Critters celebrates neighborhood wildlife in verse. A familiar cast of characters — worms, slugs, caterpillars, ladybugs, robins, mourning doves, houseflies, spiders, squirrels, skunks, and others — crawls, runs, buzzes, and flits through these lively poems, which show how exotic these seemingly ordinary creatures really are. Dan Tavis's humorous illustrations crank up the delight, and a child wanting to learn more will find it in the natural—history backmatter. Pat Brisson employs a variety of verse forms and includes a back—of—book feature called "A Peek into the Poet's Toolkit."
Common Critters is a three—tool STEAM book with delightful reading, natural history, and language skills rolled into one.