THE GOOD BIRD

by Peter- Illus. Wezel ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 1966

The story is implied in pictures without any text. These books are always fun to use with beginning talkers on their way to becoming beginning readers. The extreme simplicity of this book will guide children into telling a coherent story based on what they see and it doesn't give them much pictorial detail to encourage embellishments. This suggests the book's best use with children even younger than the ones who enjoy Ruth Carroll's What Whiskers Did (1965, p. 619, J-197). Whiskers had graphically accurate illustrations full of extra detail and offering many dramatic possibilities, allowing for plots and subplots that could grow out of just one page. The Good Bird is starkly drawn and brightly colored with intentional naivete. It shows a bird, a house and a gold fish in a bowl. The bird grows fond of the fish, shares a worm with it and roosts companionably next to it for the night. At least, that's the bare bones of the story we see. You'd be better off checking with some gabby two year olds -- what they manage to say they see reveals so much about them, and that's the whole point and most of the fun in this sort of book.

Pub Date: March 16, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1966

Categories: CHILDREN'S