Module 2 : The Dead Bird

Module 2
The Dead Bird

Reference 
Brown, M. (1938). The dead bird. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Summary
When the neighborhood children find a dead bird they decide to bury the bird and sing it a song.

What I Thought
This simple book carefully tells the story about the neighborhood's children finding a dead bird and how they decided to pay their respects to the bird by burying it, singing it a song, and placing a stone on top of the grave. The children did not know the bird but they were sad anyway and found ways to express themselves through a song, a stone, and adding flowers to the buried bird's grave. The children returned each day to sing to the bird but the story does not give a specific amount of time.

What Others Thought
The bird was dead when the children found it. It was still warm and its eyes were closed. They wrapped the bird in grapevine leaves, dug a little grave and buried the bird. On top of his grave they placed ferns and little white violets and yellow flowers. And every day, until they forgot, they went and sang there. Remy Charlip's illustrations in mossy green and cerulean blue convey the tenderness of the little forest funeral -- gently presenting the idea of mortality. The tone is reverent and solemn rather than morbid.  Kirkus Review. (2011, October 11). Retrieved from: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/margaret-wise-brown/the-dead-bird/

Ideas
This book is a wonderful conversation started for children talking about death. They could decorate rocks as grave markers and add their own words in order to express how they feel about a loved one dying or a death they heard about on the news. The children in the story did not know the bird but they were able to bury the bird and express how they felt by singing a song to the bird and adding a grave marker to the site so they could return each day, until they forgot.