THE BIRD CAPER

Moving house means new friends and trouble for a boy and his crow in Pannell and Sigfusson’s middle-grade novel.

Ten-year-old Brandon figures his life is ruined. His parents are selling the house he grew up in, he worries there won’t be enough room at the new place for his pigeon coop, and his best friend Josh is mad at him. And what will happen to his closest confidant, Ralph, his pet crow?  (“Everything important to me is lost… and we haven’t even moved yet.”) A little good news: Ralph must come along to recover from a wing injury, the pigeon coop will fit on the roof of the new two-story brownstone, and Brandon won’t have to change schools. Still, he’s lonely not knowing anyone in the new neighborhood—except, horror of horrors, for the BB Boys, the bullies who terrorize kids at his school. Ringleader Howie’s taunting “Look. It’s the Bird Boy!” portends worse to come, so Brandon plans to ask Josh to help him make friends with the BBs so they’ll leave him alone. (Brandon’s mom is portrayed as realistically alert to her son’s anxiety, but he fears that her intervention would make things worse.) Three new friends try to help, too, without success. Even worse, Howie accuses Ralph of stealing his prized silver whistle. In this lively, engaging middle-school novel, the authors weave a satisfying resolution to the conflict that includes another missing shiny object, an elderly woman (adding a poignant touch), Brandon’s ladybug-raising project (relayed in enough detail to interest any budding entomologist), and a believable evolution of Brandon’s empathy when he discovers that Howie has fears, too. Generous, well-crafted supplementary material includes a “What Do You Think?” section with questions inviting readers to respond before, during, and after reading; a “Thinking Skills” section with questions categorized via Bloom’s taxonomy of high-level thinking (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation); a guide to selected words used in the story; and an “Authors’ Chat” interview.

Friendships, humor, and a young boy’s touching bond with a free-flying crow make this story soar.