BIG BAD AND THE BORED CANARY (BIG BAD BOOKS)

A wolf in bird’s clothing tricks an innocent canary in this rhyming picture book about trafficking.

Nicolette is a young canary in Kiev, Ukraine. Instead of spending time with her family, she strives to be cool, making TikTok videos and going on adventures, bemoaning the fact that she has to do chores. When she complains to her friends and reveals her dreams of traveling, a wolf listens. When the wolf, dressed in a mask to look like a fellow bird, offers Nicolette a trip to America in exchange for work, she jumps at the chance. But the wolf is up to no good: “The Big Bad Wolf waited patiently and pretended until they got to their destination. / Nicolette had no idea of his true expectation.” Forced into servitude, Nicolette finally escapes by fleeing to the police, who send her home to her family. Mehlman-Orozco, a criminologist, opens with a lengthy note to parents, advising them to read the tale with their children. The author suggests that adults should use familiar story examples of villains who pretend to be good to explain how victims are tricked. The uneven rhymes that follow are laid out in text blocks, making the scansion hard to follow. Rodic’s illustrations featuring subdued tones and an animal cast give readers some distance from the story’s scary parts. But the inclusion of modern tools like a ring light keeps the effective cautionary tale grounded in reality.

A useful tool for introducing a difficult topic to young readers.