I'm wary when a picture book is the product of a collaboration. I think, too often, you have a celebrity "writer" with a half-baked idea, and the writer can't be bothered to attempt illustrations, so a pro is drafted to try to make a mediocre effort "sort of glittery." But I really like two picture books by a husband/wife team, Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek. Henkes writes the text, and Dronzek provides the illustrations. We're all aware that Henkes could do the drawings if needed--he is one of the major gifted artists at work in picture books--so Dronzek's work doesn't feel "mercenary" to me. Also, Henkes is not Jimmy Fallon; Henkes is actually a writer. In "Birds," he takes on a child's voice. The child remarks on large birds, small birds, green birds, a single red bird on a stripped winter tree, a bird too black to seem three-dimensional. The child describes the strangeness of seven birds on a wire--who sit, and sit, a...