Book Review: The Dead Bird
You may know author Margaret Wise Brown from her over-hyped children's book Goodnight Moon or her under-appreciated story Big Red Barn.
Somewhere in the middle she wrote The Dead Bird.
It is a simple, straight-forward tale of death intended for ages 4 to 8. I'll wager its simplicity works for children as young as two.
On the first page a bird is shown lying in a field below a blue sky. Turning the page, the story begins: "The bird was dead when the children found it."
And so the story progresses, showing you illustrations first and then explanatory text when you turn the page. Too often with regular books, Mom or Dad may flip the page immediately after finishing reading the words. This book's format forces you to fully contemplate the pictures, and then do the same with the words because they are separated.
The plot continues as four kids examine the dead bird, noticing its cold body beginning to grow stiff. They are sad, but glad they found the bird because they will have the chance to hold a funeral and bury it. The kids carry the bird into nearby woods, dig a hole, wrap the bird in leaves, bury it and top the grave with flowers. Then they sing a song to the bird.
The story ends with: "And every day, until they forgot, they went and sang to their little dead bird and put fresh flowers on his grave." The last picture shows the kids playing in a field next to the woods and the grave is still visible.
This story strikes me as a powerful way to convey concepts of permanence (the bird is here, and now it's not) and special traditions associated with death. The story provides a purely clinical view of death, but that's part of its power. No religious themes are introduced. We can all agree on the bare facts surrounding the death of a living thing, and a parent is then free to add to that as he or she deems fit.
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