OUTSIDE AMELIA'S WINDOW

Birds inspire a girl to make new friends.

When two children move in next door, Amelia doesn’t go over to play despite being “a bit lonely.” Because of an unspecified condition that requires her to use a manual wheelchair, she’s afraid she can’t play “like she used to.” One day, a bird snatches a ribbon from her treasure box to pad its nest. Amelia names its chicks Penelope and Osiris and learns the birds are redstarts; their migration takes them “past the Appalachian Mountains, across the Gulf of Mexico to the Greater Antilles, over the Mayan ruins in the Yucatán to the mangrove forests in Venezuela.” Amelia watches the chicks learn to fly. “If they can do it,” she thinks, “perhaps so can I?” When the birds depart, Amelia makes her own brave journey. As she swings, plays in a wheelchair-accessible treehouse, and makes snow angels in a season-shifting montage interspersed with the redstarts’ flight, she joyfully “soar[s] high in the sky just like the birds” with “her new friends, Peter and Maggie.” Budisan’s delicate but vivid pencil-and-watercolor illustrations subtly convey Amelia’s emotions and lend a dreamlike feel to the redstarts’ rhythmically described migration, quietly enhancing Nastro’s simple, gently encouraging text. Fledgling ornithologists will particularly appreciate the notebook-style bird facts scattered across the endpapers. Maggie appears tan-skinned, while Peter is lighter-skinned. Amelia presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An uplifting tale of birds and bravery.