Uma Krishnaswami’s Birds on the Brain is such a lovely book! I’ve read Book Uncle and Me with my book club, and I just revisited the post I wrote about it. Three years ago, I wrote about having discovered verse novels “quite recently” and now I have two verse novels of my own!
In Birds on the Brain, we meet lots of familiar characters, and although I love verse novels, I enjoyed this book more than the first. The characters, particularly the protagonist Reeni, are wonderfully relatable. Reeni, for instance, is a balance of self-centred and selfless. She has birds on her brain and it takes her a while to notice that not everyone is motivated by the same things. Yet, she makes an effort. She doesn’t want to lose her friend Anil and she does want to help the istri lady. But how?
This endearing story shows us just how she can catch two birds with one phone, to use her words, much kinder than killing two birds with one stone!
Discovering overlapping themes in modern kidlit is delightful too–just like in Petu Pumpkin: Freedom Fighter and Dhara’s Revolution, Reeni bemoans the fact that children don’t have power!
A warning, though: like I wrote when I reviewed Pax, Journey Home, however, I would suggest you don’t read the blurb. Again, something in the blurb happens very late in the story!
Here’s what we’ll do as we read Birds on the Brain at my book club.
Hobbies and Interests
As Birds on the Brain is the first book we will read next month, it will be the perfect prompt to talk about what interest us. Anil loves karate. Yasmin loves books. Reeni loves birds. What about my book clubbers? What interests them, what are they curious about, and what hobbies do they have?
Birds
I will never tire of asking children to talk about their favourite birds! With The Paradise Flycatcher, The Golden Eagle, Talon the Falcon, A Flamingo in my Garden, Ostrich Girl … I’ve learned about so many birds!
Each time I do this activity, however, I gently nudge children to look at birds outside their window instead of talking about birds they’ve never seen. Perhaps the sunbird in the story will be another push in that direction!
Writing a Report
Surveys are fun! Just like Reeni and Yasmin, I will ask the children to think of a topic and conduct a survey of their own. What interests them? What would they like to find out about? What surprising results do their surveys have? I’d love to know!
The linked writing activity will be for them to compile their data and present it in a meaningful way. We’ll work on structure and form to write a report based on the surveys we conduct.
Join a book club!
A book club is a great way to meet new people—and discover new books! We’ve read 120 books at my book club, and I’m always eager to read more. Join us!
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