Little Bird’s Bad Word
by Jacob Grant; illus. by the author
Preschool     Feiwel     32 pp.
7/15     978-1-250-05149-3     $16.99

“*@?#%!” chirps Little Bird from the cover, piquing curiosity about what the bad word might be. Inside, Papa and Little Bird are flying home with a wriggly worm for lunch in tow. Then Papa accidentally drops lunch…and the forbidden word, too: “BLARK!” There’s no way to recover with Little Bird, who upon hearing the word is eager to try it out on all his friends, in spite of Papa’s insistence that the word is only for big birds. “Frog was startled. Moose was speechless. Fish and Ladybug were not amused.” Turtle retreats silently into the safety of his shell. Soon Little Bird needs another word — “SORRY!” — to make amends. Bold cartoony art drawn with charcoal and colored digitally features large, foregrounded animals with round, expressive eyes. The variety of perspectives used throughout helps readers consider the situation from multiple points of view. While child-friendly, the story does lean heavily on its adult-centric “do as I say, not as I do” joke, and children may respond to the faux–swear word with confusion or in-the-know skepticism. In the end, that “bad” word makes one final appearance to tie the story together. This time when Papa and Little Bird are flying, Little Bird holds the worm securely, and the worm is the one who says, “BLARK.”

From the July/August 2015 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.