Garibal, Alexandra. A Head Full of Birds. Illustrated by Sibylle Delacroix. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2022. 978-0-802-85596-1. Unpaged. $17.99. Grades K-2.

A Head Full of Birds is a simple picture book about Noah and Nanette who are in school together. Nanette is different, and the other students in her school make fun of her for it. One day Noah gets punished and has to sit next to Nanette in class. After school he sees her putting little paper boats into the gutter and he thinks to himself how pretty that looks, but he doesn’t really interact with Nanette. One day it’s raining at recess and Noah brings Nanette back under shelter so she doesn’t get soaked while his friends point and make fun of her. That causes Noah to spend some time with Nanette and get to know her a little more. By the end of the book, Noah sees Nanette in a different way, and he becomes friends with her. The illustrations in this book are beautiful and make the reader want to take some time with them as they read through this book.

THOUGHTS: Overall, this is a sweet story about friendship and accepting people who are different. The only downside is the reader never sees Noah tell his friends to stop picking on Nanette, so that is something that you might want to address with the students if using this book for a read aloud.

Picture Book          Mary McEndree, Lehigh Valley Regional Charter Academy