OCTOBER 2014 - AudioFile
Pinkney performs her novel in free verse, which features Amira, a girl listeners meet when she’s living a happy life with her family in the South Darfur region of Sudan. Pinkney narrates with a gravity appropriate to poetry and Amira’s changing circumstances when Janjaweed militants destroy her home and force what remains of her family to flee. Pinkney also infuses notes of warmth and humor throughout the story, reflecting the love that surrounds Amira as well as her hopeful nature. Even as she grieves and tries to adjust to a radically altered life, Amira never stops drawing, learning, and working toward a better future. A.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
The New York Times Book Review - Monica Edinger
Pinkney's spare verse powerfully communicates this strong young girl's hopes and dreams even as she expresses the awfulness of what she has been through: "Words, / liked tugged teeth. / Yanked / from every part of me." Scattered through the elegantly designed book are Shane W. Evans's soft gray illustrations, perfectly supporting Pinkney's text, evoking the sense that they were done by Amira herself.
Publishers Weekly
★ 08/04/2014
Told in free verse and set in the South Darfur region of Sudan in 2003 and 2004, this potent novel from Pinkney (Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America) is built around the distinctive voice and drawings of 12-year-old narrator Amira. The first half of the novel examines Amira’s life in her rural village, where she helps out with farm chores, wishes she could attend school, and has a close relationship with her father, Dando, who “sees what is possible in me.” After Janjaweed militants invade, inflicting great loss, Amira flees to a refugee camp, where she expresses her creativity through art, after a teacher gives her the pencil of the title. Evans’s (We March) loosely drawn and deeply affecting line illustrations heighten Amira’s emotional reality; in one image, accompanying the poem “Shock,” a simple figure surrounded by a violently scribbled border demonstrates Amira’s despair: “My whole heart./ A sudden break./ My Bright,/ turned black.” Pinkney faces war’s horrors head on, yet also conveys a sense of hope and promise. Ages 9–up. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"Pinkney faces war's horrors head on, yet also conveys a sense of hope and promise."
—Publishers Weekly
"Pinkney uses deft strokes to create engaging characters through the poetry of their observations and the poignancy of their circumstances... A soulful story that captures the magic of possibility, even in difficult times."—Kirkus Reviews
Grace Lin
"Bird in a Box will break, heal, and then fill your heart, all in one reading."
OCTOBER 2014 - AudioFile
Pinkney performs her novel in free verse, which features Amira, a girl listeners meet when she’s living a happy life with her family in the South Darfur region of Sudan. Pinkney narrates with a gravity appropriate to poetry and Amira’s changing circumstances when Janjaweed militants destroy her home and force what remains of her family to flee. Pinkney also infuses notes of warmth and humor throughout the story, reflecting the love that surrounds Amira as well as her hopeful nature. Even as she grieves and tries to adjust to a radically altered life, Amira never stops drawing, learning, and working toward a better future. A.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2014-07-22
A 12-year-old Sudanese girl struggles for survival after a janjaweed attack on her town forces her family to seek safety in an overcrowded refugee camp. Amira Bright has a dream: to leave her South Darfur farm and attend Gad Primary School, where girls are accepted. Muma, her mother, is a traditionalist about girls' roles, while Dando, her father, and Old Anwar, a lifelong neighbor, are more supportive. Dando and Amira even have a favorite game called "What Else is Possible?" But when militia attackers suddenly upend her life, Amira is overcome with silent heartache. Relief comes when an aid worker at Kalma refugee camp offers her a yellow pad and a red pencil, eventually restoring her free expression. Telling her story in first-person verse, Pinkney uses deft strokes to create engaging characters through the poetry of their observations and the poignancy of their circumstances. This tale of displacement in a complex, war-torn country is both accessible and fluent, striking just the right tone for middle-grade readers. Evans' elemental drawings illuminate the spirit and yearnings of Amira, the earnest protagonist. A soulful story that captures the magic of possibility, even in difficult times. (author's note, illustrator's note, glossary) (Verse fiction. 8-12)
