{"id":31831,"date":"2019-12-06T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31831"},"modified":"2019-12-06T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T13:00:35","slug":"falling-in-love-with-birdsong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31831","title":{"rendered":"Falling in Love with ‘Birdsong’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longer picture books can get a bad rap in the marketplace where short and funny has come to dominate, and highly engaging early chapter books and graphic novels offer full-color experiences for readers ready for lengthier stories. But there\u2019s something about longer, more complex picture books that I truly love. Whether it\u2019s a longer page count or just a longer word count, the best examples allow for the passage of time in evocative ways and allow their stories to meander and unfold in all their fascinating specificity\u2014the kind of specificity that sometimes gets lost in their shorter, punchier cousins. To help make the case for lengthier narratives, I\u2019ve actually created a section separate from the general picture books, featuring those that offer just a little bit more.
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\nFollowing a girl through the seasons of a year of change, each scene capturing a small moment along the way, Julie Flett\u2019s recent masterpiece, Birdsong<\/em>, shows us exactly what\u00a0the picture book format can achieve\u00a0by taking its time. I\u2019m certainly not the only one singing the book\u2019s praises, as you\u2019ll find it on any number of year-end lists, but it truly hasn’t been over-hyped. Simple narration, laden with sensory details, pulls readers into quiet, contemplative\u00a0settings beautifully rendered on each spread. A calm meadow landscape suddenly bursts with the summery sounds of life all around. \"\"<\/a>Pinkish steam releasing from a pot infuses a homey scene with the comfortable smell of salmon stew in the pot. A mother and daughter bundle up under covers, missing their warmer home by the sea.
\nI respond on an emotional level to Flett\u2019s landscapes in Birdsong<\/em>. Still but never flattened, her\u00a0landscapes pull me in with their moody skies, graceful compositions, and emotional resonance. They remind me of trips taken, moments half-remembered, and\u00a0evoke\u00a0visceral sense-memories of being\u00a0outdoors. But that\u2019s my adult reaction. I was curious to discover what my five-year-old would see, because it\u2019s a perfect book for the type of reader he is\u2014one who dives deep into stories, repeating the same ones for weeks at a time until he has them fully figured out.
\nOn first reading, he loved finding each bird, frog, coyote, dog, and squirrel on each page, scouring the dark green fields for shapes. He relished trying to match up the images in the girl\u2019s art to their outdoor inspirations. He wanted to talk about the waxing and waning phases of the moon and\u00a0compare the depicted variations\u00a0to the\u00a0moon outside our own window. He loved trying out the unfamiliar cadences of the Cree words woven in throughout. And he wanted to know why Katherena\u2019s friend, Agnes, ends up in bed, unable to get back up and go outside. That\u2019s the \"\"<\/a>piece we\u2019re still talking through on our nightly readings.
\nThe thing is that Agnes\u2019s is not a story with a clearly stated end, which is maybe new for him. Although it\u2019s clear Agnes is getting weaker, it\u2019s unstated whether their last goodbye is truly final or just a goodbye for the night. The emphasis is more on how Katharena helps Agnes transition to this last\u00a0bedridden season of her life, turning her room into a celebration of the natural world she so loves. Blooming with life and art and love, the tender transformation feels well-earned, coming at the end of a journey so fully lived in\u2014a journey with more to offer each time we dive back in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A child\u2019s-eye view of a contemplative picture book masterpiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}