Lonely Bird
by Ruth Whiting (Author) Ruth Whiting (Illustrator)
A tiny paper bird shares a home with humans in this wondrously illustrated debut, introducing a sensitive, creative soul who ventures into the belly of the beast to rescue a new friend.
She's just a tiny slip of paper, a doodle cut in the shape of a bird. She isn't sure who made her or how she came to be, or if the family she lives with even knows she is there. She turns found objects into things of beauty--sometimes leaving them for the child of the house to discover--and invents riveting tales to tell to the wall outlet. And now, in her grandest adventure yet, the dauntless artist makes something thoroughly unexpected: a friend. With spare prose and luminous paintings, Ruth Whiting introduces a delicate 2D character navigating an oversize world--a reality just on the edges of our own.
Locate at a Library Near You WorldCat is the world's largest library catalog, helping you find library materials online.
Find books about:
Kirkus
Publishers Weekly
Lonely Bird, an ephemeral pencil sketch on white paper, steps off the page and explores a suburban home in this quiet friendship story. "Do you think they even know I am here?" the paperclip-size cutout wonders, watching the pale-skinned family's children play outdoors. Using tape, a rubber band, and a ragged edge of notebook paper, Lonely Bird crafts a companion, referencing the image of an Henri Rousseau lion. When the fragile paper lion is vacuumed up, Lonely Bird waits for nightfall, then heads "into the sleeping monster's throat" to retrieve her friend. Whiting illustrates in naturalistic oil paintings, with the winsome, minimalist Lonely Bird collaged into the spreads. Reminiscent of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, the story's drama unfolds at the margins of human domesticity and never shakes off its tender melancholy. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)
Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV003000 - Juvenile Fiction | Art & Architecture
