Earlier today at the library where I work, a Mock Newbery program was held, and Deborah Wiles' Each Little Bird that Sings was chosen as the Mock Newbery Medalist (basically, our favorite children's book of 2005).
I was very pleased with this decision because I absolutely loved this book. It has great characters with unique names (Comfort, Dismay, Tidings...) and takes place in a small town funeral home. Of course, death is a recurring theme in the book, but not in the typically tragic way that we've come to expect from great children's books. Instead, Wiles' fresh, realistic and very healthy view of death serves as a background for the life that abounds in this book.
But what I liked most about it were the bits of truth (little life lessons? mottos to live by?) scattered throughout the book. These are the kinds of things that I want to write down in hopes that I will remember them and allow them to inform my daily life. Stuff like the quote that inspired this blog, which reminds me that life is not always perfect and organized like I want it to be, but it is always full of joy and meaning if I can just learn to be content with the messiness (something I want to think and write more about later), and the Snowberger's family motto "we live to serve," and lots of other goodies that I will have to list after I have reread the book.
It really is a great read...check it out. And just in case you're wondering, we chose three honor books: Chicken Boy, Gentle's Holler (easily my second favorite), and Defiance.
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