Wagtail Flies Away

by Mathangi Subramanian and illustrated by Suvidha Mistry

“Wagtail Flies Away” by Mathangi Subramanian and illustrated by Suvidha Mistry. Published by Scholastic. A lovely book to learn about migration through the eyes of a little wagtail.

Wagtail is finding that the weather is getting colder and winter is approaching soon. His mother tells him that it is time to go to the place where they go every year for winter. The long trip makes him feel quite apprehensive given that it will be his first. He has lots of questions about it. His mother has answers for all of these and puts him at ease.

Accompany the wagtail and his mother as they fly away with their flock on the long journey to warmer places. They cross the ocean, forests, grasslands and plains. How do they know where to go? What do they do when they get tired? How does the wagtail find the journey? What does he learn? Who all does he meet? Which other creatures are migrating like them? Do they migrate in groups too? Why do they migrate? What can we do to help migrating creatures? Read the book to know all of these. Quite an informative book!

My seven year old loved the book. We watched what looked like a Grey Wagtail from far away in our apartment a few days ago. These wagtails are migratory here. We were very excited to see it and I immediately pulled out this book which I had bought few years ago and kept aside as it was too much text for my son to understand then. Now was the right time to discuss this topic. He found it very interesting. We had recently read the book “Saving the Dalai Lama’s Cranes” about the Black-necked Cranes which migrate from Tibet to Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh. He now understood clearly why they migrate. The book is apt for children aged 7 and above.

Where to buy from?

An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.