The Bird in Me Flies
Description
A prize-winning, illustrated novel in verse about a young girl who dreams of being an artist, inspired by the life of Swedish artist Berta Hansson.
What do you do when it feels impossible to live up to everything expected of you? When the only person who understands you disappears? When you are young and long for something that seems out of reach?
Berta dreams of being an artist, but as a girl growing up in a small Swedish farming village in the 1920s, she has little hope. She finds solace in nature, and in drawing and shaping birds from clay for her mother, the only person who seems to truly understand her. When her mother succumbs to tuberculosis, Berta feels alone, in despair and even more burdened by all the work on the farm. Can she find the courage to defy her father and the social conventions of her time, and fly free?
This beautifully illustrated novel in verse, inspired by the paintings, letters and diaries of Swedish artist Berta Hansson (1910-1994), is a universal story of grief, longing and following your dreams.
Includes an afterword by journalist Alexandra Sundqvist.
Key Text Features
captions
photographs
biographical information
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
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About the Author
SARA LUNDBERG studied at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She was a painter before she began to focus on picture books. She won the August Prize, Sweden's highest literary honor, for the original edition of this book, among other awards. In addition to authoring several titles, she has illustrated more than thirty children's books, including Skriv om och om igen, another August Prize winner. Sara lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
B.J. EPSTEIN is a writer, editor and translator. She is also a Senior Lecturer in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. A native of Chicago, she now makes her home in Norwich, UK.
