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Summary
Summary
No matter where Little Bird goes, everyone wants to know the magic word. Is it "Peep-peep?" "Moo-moo?" "Oink-oink?"
How will Little Bird ever find out? Not until Little Bird returns home does he hear the magic word from his very own Mama Bird!
Kelly DiPucchio's rhythmic and noise-filled text combines with Marsha Winborn's colorful illustrations for a delightful swirl of a book.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Little Bird has barely hatched out of his shell when a gusty gale picks him up and sends him swirling into the sky. Landing near a hay-filled stall, he asks the resident cow if he can come inside. The cow demands, "What's the magic word, Little Bird?" The youngster tries "Peep-peep?" but is soon set straight: "No, no. Haven't you heard?/Moo-moo/is the magic word-." Just then, the breeze comes again, and this time, the chick winds up in front of a beehive, where the magic word is "Buzz-buzz." Every time the wind sweeps Little Bird up, he lands near a different animal's home and the required phrase changes again. In the end, he is finally blown back to his original branch, where Mama Bird is waiting to ask him for the magic word. The poor little creature tries them all, only to learn that the answer is "Please!" The gently rhyming text twists and dances around the pages to stimulate gusts of wind. Rendered in pen and markers touched with brushstrokes of watercolor, the pastel-hued illustrations bring the charming farm and its occupants to life. Little Bird and his mother are plump yellow creatures with tiger-striped wings and speckled bellies. Don't wait for a blustery day to share this tale, which is suitable for both storytimes and one-on-one reading.-Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Youngsters may well know the answer to the titular question, but the book's hero must learn the hard way. Bounced around the farm by gusts of wind, the newly hatched Little Bird seeks shelter with a variety of barnyard inhabitants. But each animal first asks to hear "the magic word" in its particular language (e.g., "Moo-moo" for the cow, "Buzz-buzz" for the bee). Consequently, whatever Little Bird learns in one environment doesn't carry over to the next. "Bow-wow?" offers Little Bird to a family of owls, having just been blown over from the doghouse. "No, no," reply the owls. "Haven't you heard? Hoo-hoo is the magic word, silly Little Bird!" At long last, the wind blows the poor chick back to his own nest, where his mother awaits with a hug and instruction: "Come in Little Bird. Get out of that breeze! And haven't you heard? The magic word is... Please!" The premise doesn't bear close scrutiny (Why would Mama Bird require a human word if none of the other animals do?) but DiPucchio (Liberty's Journey) and Winborn (A Valentine for Norman Noggs) smooth over the lack of logic. The brisk text swirls around the pages in imitation of the blustery winds, and gentle slapstick punctuates the meticulously detailed watercolors. It also helps that fluffy and ever-game Little Bird is an irresistible hero-even when he lands headfirst in the dog's water dish. Ages 3-6. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Each in a series of animals imparts a different ""magic word"" to Little Bird: a cow says it's ""Moo-moo,"" a pig says it's ""Oink-oink,"" etc. Finally Little Bird's mother teaches him a magic word that will be familiar to even the youngest human reader. DiPucchio's benign rhymes, like Winborn's pastel-hued art, exhibit a certain amount of panache--and hokiness. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Most pre-readers know the answer to that one--and they'd better, to make sense of this breezy (in several senses) but confusing effort. A sudden wind carries newly hatched Little Chick off to a cow's stall, where his request for shelter is met with a counter-request for the Magic Word. No sooner does he learn that it's not "Peep-peep" but "Moo-moo," than that wind sweeps him away to a beehive--where the Word's not "Moo-moo" but "Buzz-buzz." And so on, past hound ("Bow-wow"), owl ("Hoo-hoo") and pig ("Oink-oink"), until Little Chick fetches up back at the nest, where his mother informs him that the Magic Word is none of the above--it's "Please." Advocates of an English-only curriculum, take note. Little Chick and his mom look like ruffled, diminutive cousins of Big Bird in Winborn's simple farmyard scenes, but there the resemblance to Sesame Street's multicultural viewpoint ends. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
PreS-K. The first hours of life are traumatic for fuzzy peepster Little Bird, as he is swept out of his nest in a squall and can't find shelter from the storm. Whenever he requests permission from a fellow animal to enter a sty or stall or hive, he never knows, when asked, what the proper magic word might be: Hello? Hello? Can I come in? / What's the magic word, Little Bird? / Peep-peep? / No, no. Haven't you heard? / Moo-moo / is the magic word, silly Little Bird. Of course, Moo-moo is not the magic word for a bee, nor is Buzz-buzz the magic word for a dog. Whisked away in a final gust of wind, Little Bird lands back in his mother's nest, where Please turns out to be the magic word. Winborn's illustrations are lively, expressive, and sweetly comical, capturing Little Bird's rampant swirling with swooshy white strokes. A breezy, rhyming read-aloud and gentle etiquette lesson rolled into one. --Karin Snelson Copyright 2005 Booklist
