Little Bird's Bad Word - Jacob Grant




Little Bird learned a new word! He loves it so much that he's bursting to share it with all of his friends.

BLARK! BLARK! BLARK!

The only problem is, this isn't a very nice word. Little Bird doesn't realize it, but this word might even hurt someone's feelings. What word will Little Bird learn to make things better?



Little Bird's Bad Word has to be one of my favourite picture books of 2015. Not only does it teach a lesson, but it's adorable and does not fall prey to an overly didactic writing style. The illustrations are also cute and portray emotion without a large amount of excess detail. The colours are relatively muted, and Grant manages to show a wide range of expressions with small details. Just look at the cover, for instance, and you will see what I mean! Little bird is truly excited, and yet you can see so much shock and acknowledgement of the delicacy of the situation from the father, with just that one big eye facing the reader.


Little bird learns a bad word and, well, as you can see from the illustration above, the word has rather the opposite affect that little bird hopes for at first. Little bird's excitement in learning this word will be familiar to parents and teachers alike, as children are more than happy to enthusiastically share their newfound language with those around them. Of course this is often much to the chagrin of parents and relatives (particularly the one who let the word slip to begin with!) Thankfully little bird gradually realizes the effect the word is having on his friends and learns to appreciate the power of the words he uses.

I truly hope this book will become a classic of the genre. Check it out when it's released into the world on July 21st, 2015.

Highly Recommended

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