Chapitre thématique

Surmonter des difficultés

Pistes d'exploration

Mettre en scène

After reading the book aloud to the whole group, have students form teams of two to three and assign them specific pages in the book. Distribute photocopies of the pages so that students can study their section and take notes. They examine the illustrations and discuss their interpretation of the story. They create a script for their section including a narration and dialogue. Students record themselves using a device (tablet, laptop) and share their recording with the teacher.

Écrire et créer à son tour

Ask students to imagine alternate solutions to the problems that the mother bird poses to the baby bird. They practise writing in the conditional form “I would . . .” to explain their creative ideas for a variety of situations.

Relier à sa réalité

Ask students to relate personal anecdotes that are similar to the conversation between the mother bird and the baby bird on pages 12 to 20. For example, what have the students’ parents required of them to do?

Bird

I Hatched!

Mots-clés

Humour , Picture book , actions , animal behaviour , animals , baby animals , birds , critical thinking , discovery , expectations , flight , intergenerational relationships , problem-solving , wordless book

Commentaire descriptif

In this wordless story, a cranky baby bird refuses to eat her worm, falls out of her nest and, reluctant to learn how to fly, engages in a lengthy (picture) dialogue with her mother about all the other ways she could get around. Undeterred by her mother’s warnings of dogs and cats, the baby is finally convinced by her mother’s mention of owls, who hunt at night—which is fast encroaching. She flits her zig-zag way back up to the safety of her nest, for a peaceful night’s sleep for both mother and child. Readers young and old will recognize the intergenerational dynamics interwoven into this tale of one stubborn little bird’s first flight. Introductory spot images show the fledgling’s routine since she was very little: in her nest, screeching, squawking and receiving a worm. But this evening, Mother wants her to hop onto the branch for her supper. Painted illustrations deploy vibrant colours and rich textures to create both the ‘real world’ setting and the hypothetical scenarios inside the character’s speech bubbles. One spread depicts the youngster’s raging tantrum in a series of spot images, connected by a yellow swoosh that directs the order of the narrative. In the first image, her stubby wings flap from the depth of her nest. She screeches, her speech bubble showing a worm and a big, fat exclamation point. Next, her flapping has her levitating, while her speech bubble screeches the same message, only a little bit larger. By the third image, she is launched out of her nest, her speech bubble now expanded to accommodate two big, fat exclamation marks. The facing page shows a full scene: the idyllic nest, branch and a golden-tinged backdrop of distant clouds and trees all contrast with the gaping, hungry maw created by the bird’s little beak, her eyes squeezed shut in pique and rage. Her giant speech bubble now holds three exclamation marks, as she flaps herself further from the nest and into the air. Readers must turn the book on its side to watch the bird’s long fall from the branch. Her mother’s mouth pops open, and the much-disputed worm joins baby in her yellow-swoop drop to the ground. The book shows various ways images can tell stories, from the literal pictograph of the birds’ dialogue, through their highly expressive faces, to the gradually dimming light of the background settings, suggesting the passage of time and onset of night. Readers may choose to tell the story from different perspectives (baby, mother, an observant owl, perhaps) or create their own dialogue and act it out. Readers will appreciate the young bird’s transportation alternatives: her mother could carry her while she carries the worm, or she could ride a hot air balloon, or she might use a ski jump. Her mother coaxes her, recounting the charms of migration down south. (Her speech bubble shows a postcard of a palm tree that reads “greetings from Florida.”) The delay tactics of children everywhere are reflected in the fledgling’s counter-proposals: speech bubbles show her traveling by bicycle, skateboard, top-down convertible and train. By the end, the forest has grown blue with twilight. The bird hops close to her mother, ready to listen to reason. When her mother flies up, the little bird’s panicked grimace transforms into a smile, as she follows, swooping a zig-zag route back to her nest. Front and back endpapers synthesize the book’s narrative arc: in front, a discontented and nest-bound baby bird; at the back, she tumbles and turns, joyfully flying free.