To celebrate the return of our feathered friends, a reading from ‘A Warbler’s Journey’

May 14 is World Migratory Bird Day, and there couldn’t be a better way to celebrate the return of our commuting friends than to attend a reading by ornithologist Scott Weidensaul from his lyrical debut picture book “A Warbler’s Journey.”

Weidensaul, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for “Living on the Wind,” will discuss bird migration based on his bestseller “A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds,” and read from “A Warbler’s Journey” at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.

“A Warbler’s Journey,” illustrated with lush paintings by award-winning artist Nancy Lane, tells the story of a tiny but mighty yellow warbler as she makes her perilous migration journey from the tropics of Central America to the Canadian tundra.

She is helped along her way by three children and their families: Nicaraguans whose shade coffee farm sustains migrant birds, an African American Grandma and grandson who create a garden in their yard on the Gulf Coast to provide food for Warbler, and a family from a Canadian First Nation who have preserved land for all animals.

Not only do children learn about the bird’s journey in this book, they also learn how children are connected by the little warbler even though they live thousands of miles apart.

The book includes pages detailing actions, large and small, that people can take to ease the passage of these birds who are challenged today by human changes that have eroded their habitat.

“A Warbler’s Journey” was praised in a starred Booklist review: “An awesome account of an awe-inspiring feat.” Los Angeles Times Book Review said that Scott Weidensaul “ranks among an elite group of writer-naturalists — Bruce Chatwin, John McPhee and David Quammen come to mind — whose straightforward eloquence elevates ecology to the level of philosophy.”

Saturday’s program is free and open to the public, presented by publisher The Gryphon Press, with Audubon, MN, and Milkweed Editions. Registration is necessary at: punchbowl.com/parties/074f921b04654bec5603.

— Mary Ann Grossmann