Roy is a bird except he’s not a bird as we generally know them. Roy is unique because you see Roy has arms! Really, he’s not all that special. He’s not the biggest, or the smallest, or the loudest or the quietest. When he discovers that the other birds don’t have arms and are quite dismissive of arms, he realises that he is different. At that moment Roy knows he must hide his arms and not use them in public.
In private though Roy enjoys using his arms, flexing them, working out with them and generally doing what you do with arms. But disaster strikes when Roy is seen by some myna birds using his arms. They flew off tweeting madly the news and soon the whole bird world knew about Roy’s arms. The tweets hurt Roy a lot. No one likes to be laughed particularly in such a mean way. However, the other birds were soon distracted by the upcoming final of ‘That Bird’s Got Talent’ as Marvin the pigeon has tweeted that he has made the final. All goes well until Marvin becomes tangled in some wires. Roy comes to the rescue and the bird world learns the value of arms.
This is an original and very funny story that cleverly references popular culture and social media reflecting what can and does occur in the human world. It is not easy to feel different to those around you. Roy felt humiliated and bullied by those around him. The book’s clever use of ‘tweeting’ highlights the negative aspects of social media where rumour and bullying can have a detrimental impact of an individual’s mental health.
The language is simple yet sophisticated and weaves direct speech with a traditional narrative. The illustrations are engaging with a photo-realistic quality giving a real-world appeal and a subtext to the narrative. This integration creates a clever plot that brings together the themes of identity, diversity and acceptance with humour and insight. Everyone has their own special attributes and talents. No one should be made to feel ashamed or bully others because of their differences. Rather these differences should be embraced and celebrated.
Picture Books for Older Readers
