When the Birds Wake Up

Description

When the Birds Wake Up

Jessica Mary Ellis, illustrated by Sophie Burrows

(David Fickling Books)

Pear’s letters to Annie explain how she really feels, about moving to her Grandma’s cottage,  the new school, new start. Most of all, it’s facing up to her beloved grandmother’s decline as her memories flow and fog. Grandma’s cottage has always been a refuge to Pear, Grandma’s ‘moon girl’. She’s sung Pear through her life, encouraging her violin playing, her confidence. What will Pear do as Grandma fades?

Can Piglet help? Like Pear and Grandma he is damaged, but his damage is harsher t, caused through a fire at the farm on which he lived. Yet the little dog is loving and knows how to make Pear and Grandma feel better. It seems he can track down trouble and put it out.

And school?  Despite Miss Polly’s hopes that she’ll tie her hair up as she plays, Pear knows better than to show herself to Alpha girls, like  Lucy. Yet can hiding away really mean being invisible? Then again, what does invisibility do for Pear, really?

When the Birds Wake Up,/ that’s the world’s way/ of saying we can start again/ no matter what yesterday didn’t fix’. That’s what Grandma’s always told Pear. Thereafter, we follow Pear through her life in Grandma’s little yellow cottage. All the while, we hope Pear can peep out from behind the curtain, find her courage and look forward.

Jessica Mary Ellis’s debut novel, written in verse, is warm, loving and from the heart. What’s more Sophie Burrows tender line drawings suggest the memories and feelings so empathetically. Like Kamizen: Fortress of Lost Kingdoms this is an assured and sympathetic book, we love.