Zetta Elliot,iIllustrated by Shadra Strickland,
Bird
Lee & Low Books, 2008

Rating: E*

Mehkai - known as Bird - likes to draw. Bird struggles to understand the death of his brother Marcus from drug addiction and the death of his Granddad from a "troubled heart" and "tired bones." Uncle Son, Granddad’s best friend, looks out for Bird, spending time with him and helping him deal with his two losses.

Marcus, a graffiti artist, is the one who first taught Bird how to draw. Bird remembers how Marcus became an addict and stopped drawing; but he also remembers how Marcus kept telling him to stay in school. When Granddad tells him in flashback that "some broken things can’t be fixed", Bird doesn’t understand why that’s true of Marcus, especially since in Bird’s drawings he "can fix stuff that’s messed up just by using [his] imagination or rubbing [his] eraser over the page." However, with Uncle Son’s encouragement that "everybody got their somethin’", and with Bird’s exploration of his emotions through his drawings, Bird discovers what his own ""somethin’" is and that he also has a means of interpreting his world so that he will never forget what is important to him.

The story is told in verse, the language spare and yet richly textured and filled with lovely imagery. At the same time, Elliott’s writing allows readers to engage in and respond to the language and the story’s details at whatever level is appropriate to them. She is also able to deal with a variety of difficult issues with both heart and grace.

Strickland’illustrations - a mixed use of watercolour, gouache, charcoal, and pen - are fabulous, building upon the imagery in the text, and weaving together the reality of the moment with the power of art to deal with emotions and to interpret memories and experiences in a way that leads to hope and healing.

Thematic Links: Death - Grieving; Feelings/Emotions - Coping; Drug Abuse - Addiction; Family Life; Poetry; Drawing

Ken Kilback
Vol. 15, number 2
December 2009

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.