A Home for Bird by Philip Stead

Summary 

While out foraging in the pond, Vernon found bird.        Vernon said, "Hello" but Bird said nothing.   While Vernon was trying to make Bird feel comfortable away from home, Bird refused to talk.  He just sat there silently, no matter what.  When Vernon was out of ideas, he decided to help Bird find his home.  Bird said nothing.  When they were too tired to go on,  they took some advice from a kind stranger and went inside a house.  Here they found a broken hose hanging on the wall that made a soothing "tick tock" sound as they slept.  In the morning, Bird started shouting "Cuckoo!  Cuckoo!".  It turns out that the new home was a Cuckoo clock and Bird was its owner.  He was a cuckoo clock bird all along.

Our Opinion

The majority of our class (27/30) really liked this book. The best part was how funny the story was as we re-read it (we read the story 2-3 times!).  Each time we picked up on new jokes within the story.  We really liked the character of Vernon.  He was kind, determined, and as we came to realize, a little "cuckoo".  We thought this was funny because Bird was a Cuckoo Bird all along.  Most of us (25/30) found the illustrations to be funny, too.  Especially the facial expressions on Vernon and his friends.  

We also liked how it was a "circle story".  On the dedication page we found a clue to help us solve the mystery of the quiet bird.  The ending tied really nicely into the beginning.