Book Title: The Dead Bird
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Christian Robinson
Publisher: HarperCollins (2016)
Originally Published: 1949
Availability: Click for an available copy from Amazon
Written fourteen years before her 1952 death, Margaret Wise Brown wrote this children’s opus on dying. The book is simple and straight forward, something many parents might find disturbing, while others will find it a great way to explain a very difficult subject to their loved little ones. In this new edition, illustrated by Christian Robinson, the pictures take the story to an urban park where the kids find a dead warm bird and provide it a proper burial. I’m not certain if this book would be written today and published due to the implications that it’s okay for children to handle a dead bird, seeing that diseases could be spread and we are more aware of that today. Also, today’s authors and publishers may not like such a title and instead insist on changing it to “Little Bird Sleeps,” or something less offensive. But a new publishing of a classic story from a master storyteller like Margaret Wise Brown cannot be fiddled with beyond providing new illustrations. It’s interesting to note that at about the exact time this book was published in 1958, a TV comedy at the time, Leave it to Beaver, featured a funeral of a dead bird. I guess in the late 1950s, bird funerals were a way of life.
If you’ve read The Dead Bird to your children or grandchildren, we’d love to know your thoughts on this unique picture book.
You can also check out the entire list of Margaret Wise Brown books right here.
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Buy The Dead Bird via Amazon.com
