Helen's Birds

June 15, 2019
This wordless graphic novel is surprisingly direct in its treatment of intergenerational friendship, grief, and hope. Casson's four-color illustrations--rendered in colored pencil, Photoshop, and pastel--gently take up Cassidy's story of a mother and her young child who move into a new neighborhood and befriend an elderly neighbor: Helen. Panels of varying sizes trace the child's friendship with Helen over what appears to be several years as they play cards, read together, and study the birds that visit Helen's yard. One night, the child is awakened by sirens and flashing lights, silently conveyed through disorienting, large red circles splashed across the pages. From the window, the child sees Helen being loaded into an ambulance; within two pages, Helen's house is for sale. The child observes workmen removing Helen's bird feeder and birdbath before the house itself is demolished, but the child does not appear to process the grief triggered by Helen's passing until discovering one of their playing cards in the construction rubble. Facing grief seems to empower the child to move forward and carry on Helen's legacy, tenderly rescuing a bird's nest from a bush on Helen's old property. Soon, the neighborhood is bursting with bird song once more. The three main characters, and indeed all others excepting two brown-skinned passersby, have yellow skin that could be read here as white. A moving testimony to the process of navigating abrupt, painful change--and the life-altering impact of true friendship. (Graphic novel. 6-10)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2020
Wordless panels explore intergenerational friendships, nature, and the process of grief, starting when a young girl and her mom move into a new neighborhood. Riding around on her tricycle, the child notices her elderly neighbor across the street feeding the birds. As time passes (the tricycle makes way for a bicycle; the girl gets taller), the child and her neighbor begin to care for the birds together, as well as playing cards and sharing stories. The two delight in the natural world, observing, among other wonders, a hummingbird, a majestic hawk, and baby birds hatching and then fledging. One night the girl wakes to see her neighbor being carried away on a stretcher; in the illustrations, disturbing red circles from the ambulance lights add to the sense of tension and urgency. Over the space of a few intense panels, autumn turns to winter, the birds are left to fend for themselves, and the neighbor's house is sold and then razed. A found memento of their friendship finally triggers the girl into reckoning with her grief. When spring arrives, she begins to care for the birds again on her own, honoring her friend and bringing the joys of nature back to her neighborhood. Equally heartbreaking and encouraging, this moving look at meaningful friendship offers valuable honesty and insight.

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2020
Wordless panels explore intergenerational friendships, nature, and the process of grief, starting when a young girl and her mom move into a new neighborhood. Riding around on her tricycle, the child notices her elderly neighbor across the street feeding the birds. As time passes (the tricycle makes way for a bicycle; the girl gets taller), the child and her neighbor begin to care for the birds together, as well as playing cards and sharing stories. The two delight in the natural world, observing, among other wonders, a hummingbird, a majestic hawk, and baby birds hatching and then fledging. One night the girl wakes to see her neighbor being carried away on a stretcher; in the illustrations, disturbing red circles from the ambulance lights add to the sense of tension and urgency. Over the space of a few intense panels, autumn turns to winter, the birds are left to fend for themselves, and the neighbor's house is sold and then razed. A found memento of their friendship finally triggers the girl into reckoning with her grief. When spring arrives, she begins to care for the birds again on her own, honoring her friend and bringing the joys of nature back to her neighborhood. Equally heartbreaking and encouraging, this moving look at meaningful friendship offers valuable honesty and insight. Julie Roach

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)