Little Red Bird: A Tale Told in Rhyme - Hardcover

Bruel, Nick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1596433396 ISBN 13: 9781596433397

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 2008

Synopsis

SOMETHING NEW AND UNEXPECTED – sweet and gentle– from the creator of Bad Kitty and Poor Puppy.

Sweetly enchanting paintings and a gently rhyming text tell the tale of the little red bird who is quite content in her cage, but curious… When the cage door is left open, she sees her chance and bravely hops out into the world. It's all so magnificent and thrilling for the little red bird – and for readers. In the end, Nick Bruel leaves both with a question. When the bird sees a familiar house and window and golden cage, will she return to it? Would you?

About this title

About the Author

Nick Bruel is the author and illustrator of the phenomenally successful New York Times bestselling Bad Kitty series, including the 2012 and 2013 CBC Children's Choice Book Award winners Bad Kitty Meets the Baby and Bad Kitty for President. Nick has also written and illustrated popular picture books, including A Wonderful Year and Little Red Bird. Nick lives with his wife and daughter in Westchester, New York.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 1—Life in a birdcage is good for Little Red Bird. Food, water, and reading material are always in ample supply. One day, she notices an interesting sight through the window and decides to venture out through the open cage door. She arrives in the park that had been beckoning to her and sees many wonderful new things—flowers, a fountain, a bench, and sticky trash. But when she spies her old home from afar, she begins to miss the comforts of her cage and must decide whether to return. Her story ends unresolved. "Should she stay?/Should she go?/She just didn't know…/I wonder what YOU would do?" Bruel relates this "grass-is-always-greener" tale in rhythmic verse that could use a little extra sparkle. The colorful watercolors show an eye for comic-book-style story progression, but the bird herself lacks the stroke of visual personality necessary to keep young audiences coming back. Despite the rough spots, Bruel's narrative invites discussion and could be considered as an additional purchase.—Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI
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When Little Red Bird sees that the door to her golden cage is open, she is faced with a quandary: stay in her home, or explore the unknown? Once she has toured the bedroom, the open window beckons. But after a long day outside, discovering the joys of a nearby park, Little Red Bird finds that she misses some aspects of caged life and debates about whether to return. Bruel, author of Bad Kitty (2005), does a good job of spinning a rather sophisticated theme in a kid-friendly manner, inviting children to ponder the bird’s dilemma with a repeated refrain: “I wonder what YOU would do?” Energetically mixing panels and full-page art, the illustrations point Little Red Bird (and readers) in a clear direction, showing human habitations as uninvitingly black, gray, and straight lined, while the park offers a riot of colors and shapes. The rhyming narrative, though sometimes forced, is appealingly bouncy and will draw children through the small hero’s exciting peregrinations until the final page, which hints at a satisfying conclusion while leaving room to wonder. Preschool-Grade 2. --Krista Hutley

Edition details

• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1596433396
• ISBN 13: 9781596433397
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Bruel Nick
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32