Fly Free by Roseanne Thong illustrated by Eujin Kim Neilan

"Fly free, fly free in the sky so blue. When you do a good deed, it will come back to you!"

This is a curious book and I am not sure how I would explain the story especially to younger readers but I was drawn to it because the illustrations are so different. They look as though they were painted on bamboo. 

In my former school the curriculum included a strand of stories with an Asian focus. My Grade Six students explored some interesting picture books such as Sparrow Girl; Ruby's Wish; Ah Kee and the Glass Bottle; Glass Tears and The Red Piano. (Pop these titles into my search bar). 

Here is my Pinterest of Asian focus picture books. As we read each book we discovered so many interesting customs and moments from history. With this book - Fly Free - I had no idea about the idea of paying to set captured birds free, but I do like the way kindness is explained here through a circle story but the actual practice of capturing animals is in fact very cruel. 

Blurb: When you do a good deed, it will come back to you. Mai loves feeding the caged birds near the temple but dreams that one day she'll see them fly free. Then she meets a young girl named Thu, and shares the joy of feeding the birds with her. This sets a chain of good deeds in motion that radiates throughout her village and beyond.

Fly Free was published in 2010 so it is long out of print but you might find a copy in a library.

Here is part of the School Library Journal review:

A Vietnamese girl feeds caged birds outside a Buddhist temple, beginning a cycle of good deeds continued by the townspeople, including a girl who gives away her red-velvet shoes, before circling back to the birds. Although written to illustrate the Buddhist philosophy of karma, the lesson of this simple story, that helping others is helpful to you, is universal. The muted and warm watercolor-on-board illustrations glow with gold, orange, red, and brown tones, although the girls' unnaturally pink cheeks and lips give them a jarringly clownish look. One of the characters is a monk but the only explicit religious message is found in an author's note that explains karma, nirvana, and samsara (the wheel of life). The arresting cover illustration of a child holding her hands in the air as birds fly into the distance foreshadows the story's conclusion. That dramatic image will immediately engage readers in wondering how the birds will be freed.