Birds on Wishbone Street

In this story celebrating cultural diversity and nature in Canada, a new child moves onto Wishbone Street, a street where the feeling of community is strong. Reflecting on her father’s immigration story, a young girl attempts to make a new boy feel welcome by discretely dropping off a gift of mitts, hot chocolate, and a feather. The two become fast friends as they realize how many parallels and common interests they share. The girl, Moe (Maureen), shares her family’s story from Ireland, and the boy, Sami, explains that he is from Syria. While playing outside together during the first snowfall, the children discover a cold and stunned cardinal. Sharing a mutual love for nature and animals (birds, in particular), Moe and Sami rescue the bird and collaborate with others in the community to nurture it back to good health.

Birds on Wishbone Street is a heartwarming story that brings forth the importance of simple things in life, such as treating one another with kindness and embracing the treasures that nature has to offer. It ends with a simple recipe for bird suet treats and winter roosting pockets which provide birds with food and shelter during the winter months. Additionally, author Suzanne Del Rizzo provides an “Author’s Note” with the backstory of her real-life experiences leading to the inspiration for this picture book.

The story, itself, is beautiful, but the immaculately detailed illustrations are worthy of their own praise. Del Rizzo creates exquisite, three-dimensional illustrations using polymer clay art, acrylic glaze, and other mixed media. The blending of colours, fine textured details, and other creative varieties of dimensional layers, arrangements, and perspectives are awe-inspiring.

Del Rizzo is a New York Times Notable author/illustrator who published My Beautiful Birds in 2017 and Skink on the Brink as her first picture book. A scientific researcher turned children’s book author and illustrator, she brings rich imagination to her award-winning literature.