Bluebird

In his most beautiful and moving work to date, Bob Staake explores the universal themes of loneliness, bullying, and the importance of friendship. In this emotional picture book, readers will be captivated as they follow the journey of a bluebird as he develops a friendship with a young boy and ultimately risks his life to save the boy from harm. Both simple and evocative, this timeless and profound story will resonate with readers young and old.

I would rate this wordless picture book 4 out of 5 stars. The story showed a little boy who was bullied befriend a bluebird. The bluebird is unfortunately hit by the bully and a bunch of birds fly the little boy into the sky to let him go. I was at first thrown off by the top to bottom reading style and I think small children and ELL might be too. I also don't know if I would want to work with a child using a book that represents death. The story seems to have a happy ending because the bird did fly away, but a child might be confused by this if they do not understand what death is or have a spiritual/religious background.

A lonely boy makes an unlikely friend in a bluebird in one the most moving wordless picture books to date. Staake’s stylized illustrations depict nuance in his story and characters, from the sweeping urban landscape to the tiny bluebird’s expressions. Varying sized panels pack more emotion and action into this story than can be captured with words and cue the reader’s timing on how long to read into each panel. Blue, white, black, and grey are the predominate colors in this story and Staake uses shading and coloring brilliantly to portray the mood in each part of the frame. Reader beware, this isn’t only a story of gentle friendship but also one about death, grief, and saying goodbye. Staake depicts death with enormous show more sensitivity and follows it with a beautiful ending that prompts further discussion. In the overfilling market of wordless picture books, Bluebird firmly stands on the top tier and is essential to any lending picture book collection. With tissues at the ready, Bluebird is very highly recommended for ages six and up. show less

Bob Staake has written and illustrated a ton of picture books but Bluebird is the only the second one I've read. I chose it specifically for the cover art comprised of basic geometric shapes, a limited pallet and a strikingly blue bird nearly center.

In this wordless picture book, a bluebird catches a boy's attention as he's at school in an urban center. The bird is the only source of saturated color, in an environment otherwise colored by cement, glass and steel.

The boy ends up spending a day of joyful frolicking in the forest or maybe Central Park with his bluebird friend. He's given a chance to reconnect with nature but it comes at a price. Here again is small animal, small child, and bully equation.

These sorts of plots always put me show more in revenge fantasy mode. They always have — even back when I was a child. Here especially, there is no redemption and no growth on the part of the bullies. They come, they destroy, and then the magic forest mojo happens for the boy's benefit.

Where are the books where the victims learn to stand up for themselves before tragedy happens? show less

A five star review compares it to 'Fantasia' and Pixar movies. Strike one. Very artsy-fartsy NYC vibe, strike two. Iconographic and simplistic characters and development. Strike three. I suppose I may be overlooking something, but there are so many better books about grief, about loneliness, about sacrifice, about bullies... just, no. I almost gave it two stars for originality, but really it's a mashup of all those themes plus wordless. So, one star it is.

Off the top of my head:
[b:Bully|15062342|Bully|Laura Vaccaro Seeger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344316341s/15062342.jpg|20717053]
[b:The Dead Bird|197998|The Dead Bird|Margaret Wise Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1223511280s/197998.jpg|1044256]
[b:The Red show more Bird|990514|The Red Bird|Astrid Lindgren|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328868014s/990514.jpg|61748640]
[b:The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend|18295821|The Adventures of Beekle The Unimaginary Friend|Dan Santat|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424308067s/18295821.jpg|25778595]
[b:The Happy Prince|79121|The Happy Prince|Oscar Wilde|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387700803s/79121.jpg|244691] show less

I really liked this story. The first reason I liked it was, of course, for the illustrations. There was not any written text with this book, so the whole story was told from illustrations. The illustrations in this story were really great through. They were able to convey the plot across easily, and were very appropriate to the mood of the story. Looking through the story the reader is able to understand the emotions that they character is feeling just by witnessing the illustrations. The style of the illustrations is also consistent throughout the story, and have a quite interesting style. The pictures are placed almost as a cartoon. When looking at the story there are multiple things that happen on each page, and this makes the story show more quite engaging. This also helps to flow the story quite well. It is easier to see the plot from page to page in this format. Another reason I liked the story was because the plot was engaging. As the reader I was waiting to see what would happen with this little boy and bird. It was clear that the little boy was lonely, and this bird was going to be his friend, and I wondered what was going to happen to them. It was quite a surprise to me when the bluebird was attacked. This added a surprise to the story that I did not see coming. Although sad, this also make the story engaging. Another reason that I liked this story was because of how it is able to broaden readers’ perspectives. The story displays what it was like for this little boy to be bullied in, and out of the classroom. Without words, the story is able to show how the boy felt about being bullied. This story is a good way for readers to see how bullying can affect someone. It also allows readers to see how impactful their actions can be on someone else. The last reason that I like this story is because the plot is able to be interpreted differently. This allows readers to pull their own meaning out of the story. For example when the bird is carried at the end of the story some people could interpret this as the bird going to heaven, or possibly just being healed and flying away. Either way, readers are able to use their own imagination and critical thinking to understand the story. I think the big idea of the story is that bullying is hurtful and wrong. The main character was bullied to the point where even a helpless animal was injured, and this is a problem. But, through the story children are able to see the gravity of their actions. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for three reasons. First, since there were no words, the illustrations clearly depicted the story and could easily be understood universally. Primarily, the author used shades of gray and blue throughout the story. More importantly, the detailed expressions on the boy’s face clearly represented how he was feeling in each scene. For example, the author displayed how happy the boy was with the blue bird through his big eyes and massive smile when they were playing with the sailboats. Secondly, the plot was organized and suspenseful. It was clear that the boy went from being alone and bullied to ecstatic to have the blue bird as a friend. Although sad, the plot was suspenseful when the blue bird flew in to show more protect the boy who was being bullied in the park. Lastly, I enjoyed this book because it pushed me to think about real life problems such as bullying. The author displays this message by showing the boy being laughed at, isolated, and through the scene in the park where the other boys were trying to steal his sailboat. The main ideas of the book are all about friendship and the effects of bullying. show less