A WEE BIRD WAS WATCHING by Karine Polwart and Kate Leiper

Musician Karine Polwart and illustrator Kate Leiper recently celebrated the release of their new picture book at Blackwell's Book Shop, a collaboration called A WEE BIRD WAS WATCHING. It's a charming story of how the (English) Robin got its red breast filled with Kate's gorgeous illustrations. First off, Kate and Karine talked about how they came together. Mutual friends had been talking each other up for ages before they finally met, and it was lost on nobody how much they actually resemble each other. In fact, both had been mistaken for the other around town on several occasions! They talked a lot about the exercise of leaving things out, making space for the reader to bring their own imagination to the story. I thought this outline of Karine's text was an especially illuminating task that I may adopt myself in the future.Of course, Kate worked wonders with the art, adding in all sorts of wee critters that don't make an appearance in the text at all. Kids Love all the critters! CLICK HERE to read more about Kate's method in a post I recently shared from her studio.They read the charming story aloud. And then, then! What a treat! Karine sang a lovely tune for us, an originally Celtic lullaby - click the image to have a wonderful listen on Youtube.If you must have more of her lovely voice to listen to, Karine has a new album out that you can order through her website at https://www.karinepolwart.com/, or click the cover:Yes, it is indeed the Year of the Bird. Which is why I was so happy to see that someone had fed the pigeons on my walk home from the bookstore. Happiness! Even better, the duo are talking about doing another book together, maybe even about more birds. I can't wait!