Review: Melody Finch

Review of Melody Finch

       In Melody Finch, by Ian Boyd and Gary Luck, an Australian girl named Melody Klomp turns into a finch. In bird form, she travels upriver, meeting a diverse range of Australian animals. Melody learns about a lot of different animals, and sees how they are struggling with drought. While the different creatures are the main focus of the book, there is also an interesting plot to keep it moving. Melody must reach her grandmother to tell her of the coming rains so she will not sell her tourist boat. There are villains: A fisherman with abysmally bad gun safety standards, and his carnivorous pet Osprey.

      Melody Finch is politically pro-environment, pro-animal rights, and anti-gun. Mild language.

      I enjoyed Melody Finch because there is such a variety of Australian wildlife shown in detail. Boyd and Luck include a lot of information on each animal, including what they eat, and details like the Rainbow Bee-Eaters build their nests in the riverbanks instead of in trees. It’s informative, and the story moves at a nice pace. Melody turns into a Diamond Firetail Finch, which is a very beautiful bird, and meets a Rainbow Bee-Eater, who is just gorgeous.

Four stars!

*Disclosure: I was given a review copy of the e-book by the author.

Diamond Firetail. Image Credit:
Francesco Veronesi from Italy / CC BY-SA 

Rainbow Bee-Eaters.
Aviceda / CC BY-SA