The Traveling Bird

by Robert Burch, Susanne Suba (Illustrator)

Boy has a pet bird.

42 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1959

About the author

Robert Joseph Burch (June 25, 1925 – December 25, 2007) was an American writer of 19 children's books whose readers are "usually young adolescents". Many of his stories are based on his childhood experiences in rural Georgia during the Great Depression. He was born in Fayette County, Georgia, and spent the majority of his life there.

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been looking for the title & author of this book for decades, and I found it because of Goodreads’ What's The Name of That Book? group.

I really liked this book, but I remember thinking that it was incredibly poignant. It’s the story of a boy who is given a (talking) bird for a gift but he really wanted a dog, and the bird helps him find the dog he’d prefer. The book was given to me as a birthday gift because I’d been given a parakeet for a birthday gift and I had always wanted a dog, but we couldn’t have pets because of apartment living and travel my father did for his work. Loved the book, and felt distressed for the rejected bird and the subsequent loss & sadness of the boy as well, but it never convinced me to be grateful for having a bird instead of a dog.