Scary Bird by Michel Streich

Life is happy in the aviary until one day a strange bird arrives. "He looked SCARY!" 

In the opinion of the other birds this new fellow is very odd, his habits are strange, and he chirps in a different language which no one can understand - he needs to GO! 

Important wisdom comes from a small mouse who sneaks into the cage to take a little birdseed.

"Hey, birdbrains! Don't you know you're ALL exotic birds."

The birds don't listen to the mouse, "nobody listens to a mouse". One day a small bird ventures down from a higher branch to listen to the pretty song sung by "scary bird". It only takes one bird to make the move. Now the other birds join in and gradually the new arrival learns to chirp like the others albeit with an accent. He is able to talk about his home and share his customs and eventually he becomes accepted as one of the group. 

"But then some thing REALLY and TRULY SCARY happened."

Have you guessed - another new bird has arrived.

I am very wary of books with an 'agenda' or a didactic message but if a book contains some wisdom which is conveyed skilfully through a clever story then that will be a book I am really happy to promote and celebrate. You can probably tell I love Scary Bird.

In this video Michel Streich explains his illustration processes. Here is another one where Michel shows the stamps he used for the end papers.  This would be great to show to a Primary class because Michel demonstrates his drawing and shows his book as a sketched draft. Here is his website.

I would pair this book with:

The Suitcase

The Thing

Brian the Brave

I mentioned previously that I am reading Australian picture books published in 2020 with aim of identifying books which might make our CBCA Notables list. Surely Scary Bird will make the Early Childhood list of 12 notable titles.

Themes include diversity, acceptance, difference, respect, understanding, equality, tolerance, migration, culture, traditions, language, and uniqueness. Reading Time

A lively little book, Scary Bird puts diversity, adjustment and acceptance into an understandable parable for little listeners (though plenty of big listeners would also do well to pay attention to its message!) and it will sit well with other recent children’s books exploring similar themes.  Books and Publishing

It shows that anybody who looks or sounds different can be rejected, but is a story that will work to start conversations with children about refugees, racism, starting a new school, migration and many other topics where difference might be something people focus on negatively, and create a safe space to talk about how this makes children feel, and ways to prevent it.  The Book Muse