TWO GREEN BIRDS

A child and his grandmother can’t get their two new parakeets to eat until they think outside the cage.

Valério calls on memories of his native Brazil for a set of short chapters enriched with spot and larger images of shimmering birds, feathers, flowers, and foliage. Young Francisco’s initial delight when his Grandma Antonia comes home with a pair of beautiful parakeets—“green as fresh leaves, as green as the inside of an avocado, as green as the skin of a guava not yet ripe”—turns to anxiety when, instead of taking the offered polenta, crackers, collard greens, or even birdseed from the local pet shop, the two birds just huddle fearfully in a corner of their cage as days go by. Why won’t they eat? In the end, Grandma’s observation that parakeets “are birds that cannot live alone” hints at the reason…and seeing their excited reaction when a whole flock of wild parakeets lands in a nearby guava tree, Francisco soon realizes what he has to do. Along with capturing a sense of comfortable intimacy in recording visits and exchanges with his grandmother, Francisco’s account is infused with sensory pleasures, from seeing a neighbor’s lush garden to watching polenta being made to sharing a delicious meal of rice and beans. Both the boy and his grandma have lightly tanned skin in the illustrations.

A deeply felt episode exploring themes of family ties and empathy for wild creatures.