Synopsis
What would you do?
Colin Jenkins is an ordinary person leading an ordinary life of hard work and little rest in a big city. But his life becomes a whole lot less ordinary the day he wakes from a nap in the park to discover that a bird has built a nest on his head. Colin's surprising decision not to disturb the bird "at such a fragile and important time of life" significantly alters his own life, as well as that of his young daughter, causing them more than a few inconveniences and problems. For Colin Jenkins now stands out from everybody else, something not everyone appreciates.
Combining a deadpan text and droll cut-paper artwork, this lighthearted fable discovers the perfect modern-day hero in a man who simply makes a difficult choice and sticks to it, come what may.
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About the Author
Tohby Riddle is also the creator of The Great Escape from City Zoo, hailed by The Horn Book as "gently clever, exquisitely designed, rich with allusion" and recently optioned by Nickelodeon. Mr. Riddle lives in Sydney, Australia.
From Publishers Weekly
Colin Jenkins, an earnest, gray-suited businessman, wakes up from a nap one day with a bird's nest on his head. His steadfast refusal to disturb a mother bird and her egg leads to a quiet urban martyrdom; he loses his job, his friends abandon him and he and his daughter have to move. But his vocation as a bird nurturer helps him recognize the hollowness and insignificance of much of the rest of his life. "He never took another job like the one he had, but he always found work," the fable says near its end. After the birds fly off, a parting shot shows Colin Jenkins, poorer but happier, gazing fondly at their empty nest (placed near his window), in which "from time to time, he would find the most beautiful and improbable things." Riddle (The Great Escape from City Zoo) draws on his experience as a cartoonist for the Sydney Morning Herald for his understated line drawings, then heightens them with photos of cloth, foliage and food, often suggesting a stage setting particularly when the man is alone with his birds (perched on the edge of his chair, or sitting up in bed). Older readers may best appreciate the syntax ("He could not easily dislodge the perfectly fitted nest from his head, nor did he want to interrupt the bird at such a fragile and important time of life"), the wry humor (the boss in the story speaks in word balloons filled with stock market prices, and the birds sing in printed arpeggios) and the hero's predicament. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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