How to Heal a Broken Wing

High above the city, no one heard the soft thud of feathers against glass, begins Graham (Let's Get a Pup! Said Kate). And no one notices the wounded pigeon that falls to the sidewalk until Will comes along. In this sparsely worded story, Will and his parents nurse the pigeon to health and then release him back into the sky. Graham breaks his watercolor-and-ink cartoons into full-bleed spreads and large and small comics-like panels, enabling him to dwell on each moment of tender loving care and to preach patience: the xs entered on a wall calendar and a series of drawings depicting the phases of the moon show readers that the pigeon's recovery takes a good month. The solemnity and earnestness with which the family goes about the task may exasperate some grown-ups; it's a pigeon, after all. But many readers will savor the way Will's parents unquestioningly rally around him, and appreciate the opportunity to imagine themselves as selfless healers. Ages 5 up. (Aug.)

Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

This isn’t as personal as Matteo Pericoli’s True Story of Stellina (2006), but it will draw a younger audience, and is imbued with the same sensitivity and sense of intimacy.