Joke van Leeuwen

I don't understand why people are saying charming and funny. Yes, it has bits of those. Thank goodness for those bits, and for the illustrations, and for the ending.

But dammit it's about a war, and a child caught in the middle, about refugees, corruption, death, and a whole lot more. Consider the detail of the mothers & children who brought worn-out toys to the dormitory... just think about self-righteous charity for a minute.

Library discard. I wish the librarian who bought it had show more book-talked it better as I'm sure there are children who would appreciate it.

Btw, no country or ethnicity is ever named. Universal... unfortunately. show less

• Het is heel mooi vanuit een kind geschreven. Het is een begrijpelijke tekst en er zitten mooie beschrijvingen in. De titel is al een soort van grappig, deze humor komt in het boek ook terug. Het is ook voor volwassen een erg leuk boek, ondanks dat het om een minder leuk onderwerp gaat.

Warren is a birdwatcher. One day he found something in the bushes. It was a bird! Sort of... it had wings like a bird. But had feet like a person. It didn't look like an angel because it didn't have arms like an angel was supposed to have. He looked around, yelled if it was anyone's, yelled that he was taking it, and the proceeded to do just that. And left. He's wife Tina and him took to their "Beedy" who could actually talk. But what Beedy really wanted to do was be free. So goes the tale show more of Warren, Tina, a girl named Lottie, and a rescuer trying to see Beady again to say goodbye.

This was such a crazy good book. Just pure fun. I have no idea why but it reminded me of a book Roald Dahl would write. It was that good. Beedy was able to change every life she encountered without knowing it. She was just a bird/girl who wanted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and to fly. What more could you want in life? Warren and Tina became her parents and they loved her so much and wanted to protect her. I had mixed feelings with Lottie on account of she kind of forcibly made her into her friend. Well her and Warren and Tina kind of also did but not as much as Lottie. They did it without knowing really what they were getting themselves into. I mean who would have thought they would be meeting someone like Beedy? Poor rescuer. The whole thing kind of ruined his life and he needed closure.

This book was just silly and sweet and wonderful. It was cute and funny and just fantastic. I loved every minute of it. I loved the illustrations as well. They were a perfect mix to the story. Very entertaining seeing them with how the story was playing out. I'm so happy I was able to read this lovely little adventure book.

http://shesgotbooksonhermind.blogspot.com/ show less

I never read this book when I was a child because I never got past the first chapter - now that I've re-read it as an adult, I did enjoy it, but somehow I feel that it might be less suited for children.

In the book a young boy wins a trip to a cottage. The first night he and his parents are staying there, he finds a young girl sipping tea. He drinks tea with her, and tells his parents, but they think he's making up stories. He sees the girls shoes in a graveyard in the nearby village. The show more next night he has tea with the girl again. On the way home, his mother reads an old newspaper article about a young girl who was accidentally killed.

The situation seems to imply that there is a deeper story, that this girl might be the ghost of the murdered girl, that there is more than meets the eye. I wonder though if I would have spotted this deeper layer back when I was a child, or if it would just have seemed rather random. Without the double layer it seems like an odd but somewhat boring story of a boy's weekend away in a cottage.
Van Leeuwen's style is somewhat eclectic, with pictures drawn in and she has her very own way of describing and illustrating things. I appreciate this now, but I remember that when I was younger I just found it odd and annoying. show less