Title: Cuckoo
Author/Illustrator: Fiona Roberton
Age Group: 2-6
Synopsis: Cuckoo bird can’t seem communicate with anyone. It’s lonely when there’s no one to talk to. Will he ever find someone to converse with or a place he belongs?
The Low Down:
My husband and I both speak multiple languages. Maybe I should rephrase, my husband speaks them both and I get by. If needed I can pull out vocabulary words buried deep in the recesses of my mind. Sometimes my excursions go off without a hitch and sometimes they end with me laughing as I realize just what came out of my mouth (my favorite has to be when I asked a hotel if they’d found anyone’s eyeballs in the room we just vacated that morning). Communicating even in English is difficult especially in the age of text messages when tone can only be conveyed by emojis. Cuckoo! Doesn’t delve into these issues but it does introduce them in a cute and funny way.
The story begins with Cuckoo’s birth and all is well as his mother hugs him and fusses over him. Then his siblings are born and they all begin chattering away, only Cuckoo can’t understand anything they say and vice versa. Cuckoo decides that he needs to find someone who does understand him but every creature he speaks to doesn’t understand a single thing he says and vice versa. So, quite resourcefully he tries learning another language. He fails with Sheep, Cow, Snake, Pig, etc. He’s not sure what he’ll do when he hears a young boy playing with a wind up Cuckoo bird (that breaks a few moments later). This young fellow understands him perfectly and wants him just the way he is.
Roberton tells the story through traditional text and word bubbles (which Bug has taken to calling balloons). Both are effective narrative devises, conveying to the reader the frustration that Cuckoo and the other animals are going through. The typical responses to incomprehension of another language are depicted in these moments. The most obvious occurring at the beginning, when Cuckoo is trying to communicate with his family, not many words are necessary as you follow their attempt at conversation:
“Too too weet?”
“Cuck oo?”
“Tooo tooo weeet.”
“Cuuuuck Ooo.”
The illustrations are sweet, bright, and simple. Roberton’s animals all have a unique look with imaginative distinguishing characters. Cuckoo has a lovely striped belly, the pigs all have pot bellys and the snakes are all polka-dot. She also has a lovely sense of humor, hiding amusing details within the book. One page sports a boy walking a duck on a leash (a character from another of her books), while another shows a wolf at the language school learning how to Baa. Combined, the story and illustrations are a great lesson in tenacity and self-awareness.
Story Tips:
- The sheep have a balloon that keep making appearances. Keep an eye out for it.
I need more!
Fiona Roberton’s A Tale of Two Beasts
Add to my library:
UK Amazon:
US Amazon:Cuckoo!
