Abby's Birds
by Ellen Schwartz, illustrated by Sima Elizabeth Shefrin
When Abby and her family move to a new house, Abby is intrigued by their next door neighbour, Mrs. Naka, whose face is "crinkled like a tree bark." Mrs. Naka explains to Abby that robins have been building nests in her tree as long as she can remember. Together they comb their hair so that the strands will become pillows for the baby birds. Abby is delighted when Mrs. Naka shows her how to make paper cranes. One day Mrs. Naka falls and must go to the hospital. While Mrs. Naka is away, summer comes to an end and the birds disappear. Abby covers the maple tree with a whole flock of paper cranes, much to the delight of Mrs. Naka when she returns home.
This is a thoughtful story that looks at the close bond between two individuals who on the surface appear so very different. In a subtle way, this book teaches children empathy and concern for others. Through their love of the robins, Mrs Naka teaches Abby crucial life lessons which help prepare her for times of sadness, such as when Mrs. Naka falls. Perhaps the most important gift that Mrs. Naka gives Abby is showing her the joy of giving to others.
The illustrations, crafted from paper cut-outs, are truly unique and will really appeal to children. The jacket cover includes instructions for making paper cranes.
- Zoe Johnstone, Resource Links
Ellen Schwartz's cut-paper illustrations - ingenious and most
appealing to the eye - are the perfect medium for this exquisitely
subtle picture book, in which origami, the Japanese art of folding
paper to make various objects and shapes, is both theme and message.
The story here revolves around a small girl, Abby. When she moves
to a new house, Abby meets her neighbour, Mrs. Naka, a very old
woman whose face,when she smiled, "crinkled like tree bark."
In short order, Abby becomes a devoted acolyte of her frail neighbour,
who introduces her to the birds in her garden - their nests, their
young,their habits - and to the fragility of baby birds, a point
driven home when one falls from its nest and dies. Mrs. Naka reassures
a tearful Abby that the other birds in the nest will thrive and
return year after year to build nests in this garden.
Mrs. Naka also teaches Abby to make origami birds, "tori," a skill
that Abby uses to populate the bare branches of a tree to welcome
Mrs. Naka home after a hip fracture necessitates a long hospital
stay. -- by Susan Perren, The Globe and Mail, October 21,
2006
WHAT a feast of colour, design, humour and language we get at
this time of year in children's books.
For three- to seven-year-olds, Abby's Birds by B.C.-based
Ellen Schwartz with illustrations by Sima Elizabeth Shefrin (Tradewind,
32 pages, $20 hardcover) tells a sensitive story.
Abby, a young girl lives next door to an elderly Japanese woman,
Mrs. Naka, who teaches her to fold origami birds. When Mrs. Naka
is taken to hospital with a broken hip, Abby decides to fold enough
paper birds to fill the tree in her backyard where they used to
sit and where the coloured leaves have now fallen.
As in the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, the origami
birds seem to have a special magic.
The illustrations deserve special mention in this picture book.
Done with cut paper, in brilliant colour, they mirror this story
of the delights of origami. There are special instructions included
to let small fingers fold a paper crane.
Helen Norrie has been a teacher/librarian and an instructor in
children's literature. Watch for her Christmas gift suggestions
on Dec. 10.
- By Helen Norrie, Sun Nov 19 2006 2006 Winnipeg Free Press
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