Alice Cary

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

How to make a family

Review by Alice Cary

BookPage Children's Top Pick, January 2018

Punch! That’s what Robinson Hart does to Alex Carter, the biggest bully in fifth grade, when he calls her a “motherless Robin bird.” Robinson’s mother died soon after she was born, so Alex hit a nerve. In this moment, the feisty, memorable, baseball-loving heroine of Lindsey Stoddard’s Just Like Jackie momentarily forgets the words of her grandpa: “The man you’re named for was a great ballplayer. The first black player in the league. People taunted him all the time, but he didn’t pay no mind.”

School administrators in the small Vermont town try to help Robbie control her broiling anger, but a family tree project isn’t helping. She knows little about her family, except that she is one-quarter black and lives with her black grandpa, whom she adores.

Robbie is happiest when she’s helping Grandpa fix cars at his garage, along with the other mechanic, Harold, who is adopting a baby with his partner. But Robbie’s been increasingly on edge because she’s also trying to hide an important secret: Grandpa is becoming more and more forgetful. She knows she needs to find out about her family before Grandpa’s memories are gone forever.

Robbie soon learns that she’s not the only one aggravated by the family tree project. She’s forced to attend Group Guidance meetings at school, along with none other than the dreaded Alex Carter and several other students. A sensitive counselor named Ms. Gloria gently allows each group member to gradually open up and reveal their troubles in a Breakfast Club sort of way.

Just Like Jackie covers a cornucopia of social hot points: Alzheimer’s, a parent dying of cancer, divorce, mixed-race families, gay couples, anger management, bullying, adoption and more. The story never feels forced, however, nor the issues gratuitous. Stoddard’s natural storytelling talent allows Robbie’s character to emerge like an extraordinary butterfly breaking its way out of a cocoon.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Punch! That’s what Robinson Hart does to Alex Carter, the biggest bully in fifth grade, when he calls her a “motherless Robin bird.” Robinson’s mother died soon after she was born, so Alex hit a nerve. In this moment, the feisty, memorable, baseball-loving heroine of Lindsey Stoddard’s Just Like Jackie momentarily forgets the words of her grandpa: “The man you’re named for was a great ballplayer. The first black player in the league. People taunted him all the time, but he didn’t pay no mind.”

NonfictionEssays

Twelve portraits of an island

Review by Alice Cary

For many, Cuba seems like a distant exotic cousin you've grown up hearing about but never been able to meet. Whether you're planning a visit or merely intrigued, Cuba on the Verge is a collection of 12 essays that offer an engrossing glimpse into this island nation and its endless dichotomies.

Carlos Manuel Álvarez writes beautifully about a 2015 visit with his father, a former doctor who had recently emigrated to Miami, and how they worked together shaking coconuts from the trees of wealthy homeowners, collecting 70 cents for each nut.

Wendy Guerra chronicles decades of change in Cuba, from the elegance of the early 1960s to her teenage years in the 1980s, when a ration book allowed her to buy one set of underwear a year and getting an abortion "is much more common than going to the dentist." She maintains that Cuban women have been empowered in various ways over the years, but laments that "today, female political leadership is still unthinkable."

Jon Lee Anderson remembers being an American writer in Cuba in the early 1990s, living in a house with no running water, dropping his daughters off at school to sing the Cuban revolutionary national anthem pronouncing "Yanquis [Yankees], the enemies of humanity" as he researched a biography of Che Guevara. Anderson describes returning to their house decades later with one of his daughters, gazing at the nearby spot where they once watched Cuban "rafters"―including their neighbor―plunge into the ocean in an attempt to escape.

Baseball, movies, music, Fidel and Raúl Castro, visits by Obama, the Rolling Stones and Pope Francis―all and more of these subjects are addressed. As author Patricia Engel's friend Manuel concludes, "Popes and presidents. They come and they see Cuba, then they leave and forget us. But for us, nothing changes. Here we are. Here we will always be . . . the same Cuba, the same ruta, the same struggle always."

For many, Cuba seems like a distant exotic cousin you've grown up hearing about but never been able to meet. Whether you're planning a visit or merely intrigued, Cuba on the Verge is a collection of 12 essays that offer an engrossing glimpse into this island nation and its endless dichotomies.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Hope, magic and family

Review by Alice Cary

Everyone needs a Mr. Gedrick in their lives, but especially 9-year-old Stanley Darrow and his family, who are reeling from the death of Stanley’s father. Stanley’s older brother and sister ignore him, while his architect mother flounders as she attempts to work from home. Meanwhile, the house is a mess, as no one has the energy or heart to take over the duties of the Darrows’ stay-at-home dad.

Healing begins when the Darrows’ self-appointed nanny, a strange man named Mr. Gedrick, suddenly appears on their doorstep—a Mary Poppins-like figure with a fuzzy green jacket and an odd little car he calls Fred. Initially wary, Stanley and his family can’t help but be amazed by the newcomer. Cleanup happens magically in minutes, with everyone working together with “a splish and a splash” or “a flick and a sniff.” Mr. Gedrick has secret projects in store for everyone in the family, giving them the courage to tackle huge hurdles that have become roadblocks since Mr. Darrow’s death, and helping them find the faith they need in themselves and each other in this new, dadless world.

Rare is the book that takes on weighty subjects like grief and loss with such grace, love and wonder, but Mr. Gedrick and Me by bestselling author Patrick Carman does all this and more while overflowing with marvelous fun.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Rare is the book that takes on weighty subjects like grief and loss with such grace, love and wonder, but Mr. Gedrick and Me by bestselling author Patrick Carman does all this and more while overflowing with marvelous fun.

NonfictionNature

The joys of jellyfish

Review by Alice Cary

Juli Berwald fell in love with the ocean during her junior year abroad in Israel, when, on a whim, she signed up for a weeklong marine biology course, snorkeling amid the coral reefs of the Red Sea. “It was as if I were Dorothy stepping into Oz,” she writes, remembering how her “world erupted in a kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, and textures.” She went on to receive a Ph.D. in ocean science, eventually becoming a science textbook writer.

Later, as a mother of two living in landlocked Austin, Texas, she “stumbled” upon jellyfish while working on a project with a National Geographic photographer. She became obsessed with the creatures, realizing that “to research jellyfish is not just to look at the creature unfamiliar and bizarre to most, but to study the planet and our place in it.”

Berwald shares her “crazy jellyfish adventure” in the fascinating Spineless. Reminiscent of Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl, Spineless reveals not only an around-the-world exploration of emerging science but also Berwald’s evolution as a science writer, learning to “write a book that matters,” as one jellyfish expert challenged her.

Are a series of jellyfish blooms simply a natural cycle, or are they a dire indication of global warming and increased ocean acidification? The answer, it turns out, is complicated. What’s more, jellyfish are both friend and foe—useful as food and possibly in medicine and engineering, but also the source of stings and a cause of major power plant-disrupting clogs.

As Berwald snorkels amid a jellyfish bloom in the Bay of Haifa, she watches a research photographer cavort with jellyfish like a dolphin. Readers can’t help but be swept away with enthusiasm as the researcher surfaces to say, “I love them so much. They’re like dancers.”

Full of humor and intrigue, Spineless is a seaworthy saga brimming with information about not only jellyfish but also about the health and future of the oceans and our planet.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Full of humor and intrigue, Spineless is a seaworthy saga brimming with information about not only jellyfish but also about the health and future of the oceans and our planet.

Children's & YAMiddle GradeGraphic Novels & Comics

Darkness on the edge of town

Review by Alice Cary

Young Pig lives in Sunrise Valley, but his world is filled with darkness in The Dam Keeper, the first of three graphic novels based on a 2015 Oscar-nominated short film. This riveting new story begins five years after the events in the film, focusing on an epic journey undertaken by Pig, his best and only friend, Fox, and her friend Hippo.

Pig is ostracized in his village, yet he keeps the town safe by operating an ingenious dam that his father built to keep a dark, deadly fog at bay. The fog killed Pig’s mother when he was a baby, and his father, seemingly crazed by grief, eventually walked out into the fog, apparently to his death. Pig, meanwhile, has become the self-sufficient, albeit lonely, dam keeper.

Pig is irritated, however, when Fox brings Hippo to see the dam. Hippo may be Fox’s friend, but he’s Pig’s archnemesis. During the visit a sudden tidal wave of fog blasts Pig, Fox and Hippo into the dangerous, desolate world beyond the dam, and they must band together to find their way back to safety before another wave of fog returns.

Dice Tsutsumi’s stunning illustrations bring a mesmerizing cinematic immediacy to Robert Kondo story, creating an ongoing interplay between light and dark, life and death, hope and despair. The stakes are high, as is the electric tension—this is by no means a book for the faint of heart. That said, Pig, Fox, and even the bullying Hippo are cute, lovable characters that will appeal to older elementary and middle grade students. Within its epic atmosphere, The Dam Keeper explores themes like fear, loneliness, friendship, bravery and bullying in complex, understated ways.

As the book closes, the cliffhangers couldn’t be higher. Might Pig’s father still be alive? Did Pig catch sight of him in the wilderness, leading the trio forward, or was he dreaming? Can the group trust a strange new creature named Van who promises to take them back to Sunrise Valley? And what will they find in a big new city they’re about to enter?

Readers will blaze their way through The Dam Keeper’s thrilling 160 pages and be champing at the bit for the next installment.

Young Pig lives in Sunrise Valley, but his world is filled with darkness in The Dam Keeper, the first of three graphic novels based on a 2015 Oscar-nominated short film. This riveting new story begins five years after the events in the film, focusing on an epic journey undertaken by Pig, his best and only friend, Fox, and her friend Hippo.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Living, working and learning

Review by Alice Cary

A new novel from Katherine Paterson about a fascinating, little-known chapter in Cuban history is reason to celebrate. Paterson—a Library of Congress “Living Legend” and two-time winner of both the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award—doesn’t disappoint with her first novel since her husband’s death in 2013.

It’s 1961, and 13-year-old Lora lives with her family in an apartment in Havana. Upon hearing about Fidel Castro’s campaign to make the nation literate in one year, Lora ignores her parents’ concerns and joins an army of young volunteer teachers (more than 250,000) heading into the remote countryside. There Lora and the other “brigadistas” live and work alongside poor families in primitive conditions. Lora gains self-confidence as she learns to love several families, experiencing the challenges and rewards of teaching both children and adults, all while facing grave danger.

Paterson seamlessly brings this tale to life, skillfully weaving in just enough historical detail to give curious readers a sense of the complex historical factors at play (Cubans’ delight and the United States’ displeasure at the fall of Baptista’s corrupt regime), with a helpful timeline of Cuban history. Castro’s bold campaign worked, making Cuba the first illiteracy-free country in the Western Hemisphere.

“We did it, we did it, we did it!” Lora and the brigadistas sing upon their triumphant return to Havana. Lora notes: “We were like an army of sharpened pencils marching into the center of the capital.”

Lora’s brigadista year transformed her life forever, as it did for many actual participants (one of whom is Paterson’s friend). In a wonderful epilogue written years later, after Lora becomes a doctor, she notes: “My country is not perfect, but, then, is yours? . . . No, we are not perfect, but we do have a literate, educated population. We do have doctors.” She adds that many doctors and nurses are heading to West Africa to care for Ebola victims.

As always, Paterson eloquently delivers a fascinating slice of history, then gives her readers important points to ponder, making My Brigadista Year a gloriously timeless story.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a Q&A with Katherine Paterson for My Brigadista Year.

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

A new novel from Katherine Paterson about a fascinating, little-known chapter in Cuban history is reason to celebrate. Paterson—a Library of Congress “Living Legend” and two-time winner of both the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award—doesn’t disappoint with her first novel since her husband’s death in 2013.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

A girl’s best friend

Review by Alice Cary

Watch out for Rosie, who is whip-smart but as mean as the snakes she tries to catch. During the summer before sixth grade, Rosie is as gruff and gritty as her grandfather and the town where they live. Rosie’s lawyer mother abandoned her as a baby, and life with Rosie’s dad was good until he had a serious stroke a year ago, leaving him so severely disabled that Rosie can’t bear to visit him in the rehab hospital. Rosie’s gnarly but loving grandpa stepped in, taking over her father’s doughnut store to try to eke out a living.

Rosie has little to be happy about in Chasing Augustus, Kimberly Newton Fusco’s spirited novel. Her grades have tanked, and her foremost goal is trying to find her misbehaving dog, Augustus, whom her mother gave away when her father had his stroke. For Rosie, losing Augustus was the crowning blow: “When you lose your dog, there’s a hole in your heart as big as the sun. Your head aches all the time and you are so empty inside because you are half the girl you used to be.” Rosie will do anything to find him, even break the law, and she’s pretty sure her dog is living on a farm with a woman known as Swanson, a town outcast who doesn’t speak and is rumored to shoot squirrels.

Helping in Rosie’s quest to find her dog—and herself—is a cast of quirky characters, including a withdrawn foster child named Philippe, an annoying chatterbox named Cynthia and a gifted sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Peterson, who challenges Rosie to open her heart and her mind.

There are no easy answers for Rosie, but through her own determination and with the help of a trusted few, she learns to find her way.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Rosie has little to be happy about in Chasing Augustus, Kimberly Newton Fusco’s spirited novel. Her grades have tanked, and her foremost goal is trying to find her misbehaving dog, Augustus, whom her mother gave away when her father had his stroke.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Twain’s bedtime story

Review by Alice Cary

When Mark Twain’s daughters begged for a bedtime story in a hotel in Paris in 1879, he began a fairy tale about a poor boy named Johnny. Later he jotted down 16 pages of notes, only to leave the project unfinished.

Fast forward to 2014, when Doubleday acquired the rights to the story, working with the Mark Twain House and Museum and the Mark Twain Papers. The publisher turned to husband-and-wife team Philip and Erin Stead, the author and illustrator of the Caldecott Medal-winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee. The result of this years-in-the-making, grand collaboration is the highly unusual, lively The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine.

The story rolls right along, focusing on dirt-poor Johnny (and his pet chicken, named Pestilence and Famine), who, after a series of misfortunes, shows kindness to an old beggar woman. As for the titular princely hero, he only makes a brief appearance near the end, as a demanding, narcissistic young man holding a band of poor outcasts hostage in a cave.

There’s also a king and queen and a menagerie of talking animals, including an elephant that will remind fans of the Steads’ Amos McGee pachyderm. Erin’s trademark illustrations combine a variety of techniques (wood carving, ink, pencil and laser cutting) in muted colors to convey sadness, humor and immediacy, serving to pace the lengthy tale perfectly.

Not surprisingly, both pictures and words hold magic here. How could Philip pay homage to Twain while crafting his own tale? The solution: Philip interrupts chapters with imagined exchanges between himself and Twain, as they sit, sip tea and argue plot points. Somehow the whole thing works beautifully, providing readers with an intriguing look at the creative process.

This is a noteworthy publishing treat, one best shared and read aloud. Readers can imagine Twain sitting back, nodding his head and smiling as he admires this new, deeply imaginative rendition.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

This is a noteworthy publishing treat, one best shared and read aloud. Readers can imagine Twain sitting back, nodding his head and smiling as he admires this new, deeply imaginative rendition.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

When wishes become action

Review by Alice Cary

BookPage Children's Top Pick, October 2017

What can be done in the face of racism and hatred? Newbery ­Medal-winning author Katherine Applegate deftly explores this question in her stellar new novel, Wishtree.

A 10-year-old Muslim girl named Samar and her parents move into a house in a suburban neighborhood, hoping for a new life. Samar has wary eyes and a shy smile, with “the look of someone who has seen too much.” Even so, she is quietly hopeful, tying her written wish on a large red oak wishing tree in front of her house, as people have done for decades. “I wish for a friend,” she whispers, and the tree listens.

But the next-door neighbors aren’t friendly. A teenager carves the word “LEAVE” into the tree’s trunk. Someone throws eggs at Samar’s house. A car races by whose occupants shout, “Muslims get out!” Finally, the “wishtree,” named Red, can stand silent no longer. It’s time to act.

Using an oak tree as a narrator is a huge creative risk, but Applegate carries out this feat with literary bravado, elevating her tale to an unforgettable, timeless fable in the process. Red has not only carefully watched the world for over 200 years but is also very funny. “I could write a book,” Red muses, wryly adding, “In fact, I could be a book.”

This neighborhood story has a marvelous animal and human cast, including a pair of policemen who investigate the tree vandalism and the tree’s owner, Francesca, who wants to cut the oak down. Helping Red in the quest for neighborhood peace is a menagerie of animals that find shelter in the wise old tree and whose interactions add another layer to this story about the pleasures and difficulties of living in harmony.

Wishtree is a page-turning, magical read that packs a lot into its pages. This gentle yet powerful book is suitable for all ages, from young to old, and its message remains more vital than ever.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

What can be done in the face of racism and hatred? Newbery Medal-winning author Katherine Applegate deftly explores this question in her stellar new novel, Wishtree.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Growing up and letting go

Review by Alice Cary

Set in the idyllic seaside tourist town of Isla, a place famed for its talking birds, Pablo and Birdy is a mystical, fable-like novel that gently examines big questions of identity, family, refugees and freedom.

As a baby, Pablo was set adrift at sea in a child’s inflatable swimming pool with a parrot named Birdy. After Pablo washed ashore, a souvenir shop owner named Emmanuel took him in, helped by other shopkeepers who had emigrated from places like Cuba, Haiti and Ireland.

Now, on the eve of his 10th birthday, it’s no wonder that Pablo is haunted by questions about his past. Just as Pablo is coming to terms with his mysterious origins, he faces a turning point with his beloved Birdy, long presumed to be flightless and voiceless. Helped by a comic “Committee” of talking birds, Pablo begins to realize that his guardian parrot may be an elusive Seafarer, who according to legend can hear and reproduce every sound ever made.

Pablo hopes that Birdy’s special powers may help reveal his origin story. At the same time, however, he worries that he will be forced to set Birdy free, to return to the ocean on the rare “Winds of Change” that are quickly approaching Isla. As news reporters race to capture a legendary Seafarer, possibly endangering Birdy’s life, Pablo is faced with a gut-wrenching decision.

Pablo and Birdy provides an engaging introduction to an all-important issue: As Emmanuel explains, there are many “in this world who had to leave their homes, for various reasons, and their journeys are long and hard.”

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Set in the idyllic seaside tourist town of Isla, a place famed for its talking birds, Pablo and Birdy is a mystical, fable-like novel that gently examines big questions of identity, family, refugees and freedom.

Children's & YAPicture Book

The joy of exploration

Review by Alice Cary

Rare is the picture book that grabs as immediately as On a Magical Do-Nothing Day. On the cover, a bespectacled child of indeterminate gender, wearing a neon-orange coat, swings through the air on a tree branch, pulling readers along on a wondrous journey.

Award-winning Italian author-illustrator Beatrice Alemagna tells the story of a child’s transformative day, reminiscent of Aaron Becker’s Journey series. But while Becker’s bored young hero escapes into a fantastical world of imaginary creations, Alemagna’s narrator explores the woods outside a cabin on a rainy day, eventually seeing the world in a new light.

While Mom writes at her computer, the child grows bored with a video game. The dreary day gets even worse when the narrator goes outside and accidentally drops the game into a pond. Alemagna’s straightforward prose conveys the kid’s misery, while each illustration offers unexpected delights full of texture, swirls and whirls, showing, for instance, the hero’s legs turning into leaden tree trunks. Meanwhile, the orange splash of raincoat shines like a flashlight from scenes of dark greens and grays.

Soon, however, the child begins to notice a world of luminous natural delights, like snails with antennae “as soft as Jell-O” and how digging into the mud reveals “a thousand seeds and pellets, kernels, grains, roots and berries.” Alemagna’s sense of color, design and artistry is stunning as she manages to convey the delights of the outdoors without being preachy or predictable.

“I felt that there was something special close by. That I was surrounded,” the narrator says. Readers of On a Magical Do-Nothing Day will indeed be surrounded by something special: a masterpiece of narration and art.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Rare is the picture book that grabs as immediately as On a Magical Do-Nothing Day. On the cover, a bespectacled child of indeterminate gender, wearing a neon-orange coat, swings through the air on a tree branch, pulling readers along on a wondrous journey.

NonfictionHistory

An unshakable bond, forged in chaos

Review by Alice Cary

Canadian journalist Deborah Campbell traveled to Damascus, Syria, in 2007 to report on the mass exodus of Iraqis into Syria in the wake of sectarian violence after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. There, she met an Iraqi woman named Ahlam who would not only change her life but also draw her into the very story on which she was reporting.

Campbell hired Ahlam as a “fixer,” a local who helps journalists arrange interviews, interprets and provides context to what journalists see and hear. Ahlam was one of the best: A smart, bold and kind mother of two, she spent her life helping others, even starting a school in her apartment for refugee girls. Not only was she an invaluable resource, she quickly became Campbell’s cherished friend.

A Disappearance in Damascus: Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War is the fascinating account of both Ahlam’s story and Campbell’s life posing as a professor while working as an “undercover” journalist in Syria. Although the country’s civil war had yet to start, Syria was a dangerous place. One day, Ahlam was suddenly arrested and imprisoned, whisked away to an uncertain fate. Desperately worried and fearing that their work together may have contributed to Ahlam’s arrest, Campbell upended her life to try to help her friend. “Caught in a web of fear and suspicion,” she writes, “I wanted to run for cover but knew I had to stay and look for her.” In riveting, heartbreaking detail, Campbell seamlessly weaves together her own search and investigation with Ahlam’s horrific imprisonment and interrogation.

Campbell also provides an excellent primer on how the Middle East’s complex history has contributed to the area’s strife. This is an important, chilling book that explores the ongoing plight of Syria’s citizens and refugees, as well as the perilous struggles of the journalists who deliver their stories to the rest of the world.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Canadian journalist Deborah Campbell traveled to Damascus, Syria, in 2007 to report on the mass exodus of Iraqis into Syria in the wake of sectarian violence after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. There, she met an Iraqi woman named Ahlam who would not only change her life but also draw her into the very story on which she was reporting.

Children's & YAPicture Book

If you give a bird a phone. . .

Review by Alice Cary

Nerdy Birdy and his best friend, Vulture, are back in another delightful installment that celebrates the importance of actual friends over virtual buddies in this age of social media.

While Vulture’s favorite pastime continues to be “snacking on dead things,” video-game lover Nerdy Birdy gets caught up in a craze called Tweetster. Soon he’s ignoring Vulture while fawning over his 500 new “friends” which include, Nerdy excitedly shouts, a flamingo, an ostrich and a puffin from Iceland. Bored and ignored Vulture unsuccessfully tries to attract Nerdy’s attention (“Did you realize I can fit your whole body in my beak?”). Finally Vulture gives in and joins Tweetster.

All seems swell until Nerdy Birdy secretly posts an unflattering photo of Vulture, an act of secret-sharing that Vulture finds disloyal and embarrassing. Can this friendship be saved?

Aaron Reynolds turns an all-too-common modern pitfall into a clever story that will make young readers both laugh and think, while Matt Davies’ pen, ink and watercolor illustrations ramp up the humor and charm. Who knew that a vulture of all things could be so darned cute? In Davies’ gifted hands, he’s downright adorable―a hairy, frazzled-looking creature whose long lashes flutter atop expression-filled eyes. The same goes for Nerdy Birdy, whose huge glasses illuminate his animated, impetuous personality.

Even though the target picture book readership is unlikely to be on Twitter or Facebook, Nerdy Birdy Tweets works as a cautionary tale that tackles age-old issues of friendship, loyalty and reconciliation in a way that young readers will adore. Perhaps they can remind their elders about the book’s important message: “Just because you thought it, doesn’t mean you should tweet it.”

Nerdy Birdy and his best friend, Vulture, are back in another delightful installment that celebrates the importance of actual friends over virtual buddies in this age of social media.

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