From award-winning author Liz Garton Scanlon and celebrated artist Frann Preston-Gannon comes a gorgeously illustrated, lyrical counting book that will have young readers' imaginations taking flight. A small paragraph on the title page defines a murmuration (“a single-seeming mass [of birds] that performs coordinated acrobatic dances in the sky”) before using a counting-book frame to illustrate one composed of starlings. “1 / dark bird / perched way up high / a view of town / a taste of sky. // 2 birds more / come winging by / then 3 / then 4 / flights multiply.” Hand-drawn and digital illustrations, mostly focused on the rooftops and the bird’s-eye views, convey a warm, colorful afternoon in a community full of people, pets, and bicycles. The counting stops at 10, as the spare, poetic text then compounds the number of starlings in the sky into the hundreds (“A hundred here / and there / and there / fine feathered friends / with sky to spare”), while the art shows them gathering in the sunset. When a hawk arrives on the scene and startles the birds, the murmuration begins, and each double-page spread becomes a breathtaking display of bird choreography. Finally, the birds disperse, allowing a slow counting backward from 10. Darkness overtakes the town, and birds and people begin to get ready for sleep. A pleasure to look at and think about, this story and its inspiring sky-set dance can elicit new appreciation for the natural world.