Somehow, within its pages, I was transported to that moment before I quite understood the adult realities of death, back when it was a mythological state, known but not understood. This book accomplishes all of that and more.

They are books written for children and frequently featuring child characters who hopefully have some verisimilitude. Picture books are, after all, first and foremost books. If we didn't, we'd dismiss this work of art and poetry as a poor example of a genre or a failure as a teaching tool instead of as a book. We forget to do that sometimes, and The Dead Bird reminded me exactly why it's so incredibly important that we do. I'm done assessing it as a librarian and teacher now, and can approach the book as a human being and a former child. Its plot is ambiguous, its themes beyond what we tend to consider children capable of grasping, and the illustrations are dated. This book is certainly no good at all if you want to instill any sense of hygiene in your children. This book is pretty much useless for talking about loss with kids. Much of the time, especially now that I am a library teacher, I find myself looking for books that fill some kind of purpose. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem.

She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well. Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.

The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown