Hello, Crow!

Candace Savage’s Hello, Crow! tells the story of a little girl who struggles to make her father understand how she has befriended a crow. Franny is a dreamer who spends a lot of time playing outside as well as observing and drawing nature. When Franny has an idea, she will follow through with her plan but not without making a mess everywhere she goes. One day, Franny is eating her sandwich outside on her favourite rock while leaving crumbs everywhere. Suddenly, a crow swoops down and eats her crumbs and gives her a nod. Each day thereafter, Franny waits for her friendly crow to visit, and the crow begins to bring Franny small gifts like shiny beads and little trinkets. Finally one day, Franny’s father has had enough of listening to Franny’s make-believe stories about her friend the crow and the junk she brings home claiming as treasures from the crow. Franny’s challenge is to convince her father that her friendship with a crow really exists.

Chelsea O’Byrne’s colourful pictures enhance the storytelling by adding supplementary details to the characters, like the mess in the kitchen left by Franny after making sandwiches or how the crow is in all of Franny’s sketches, signifying the importance of the crow in her new friendship. The characters and backgrounds are realistically portrayed on each two-page spread of illustrations.

At the end of Hello, Crow!, Savage provides a short fact section on how to identify a crow, how to feed a crow, and whether or not humans and crows can actually be friends.