Sleeping with the Blackbirds edition by Alex Pearl Children eBooks
Download As PDF : Sleeping with the Blackbirds edition by Alex Pearl Children eBooks 
Eleven-year-old schoolboy, Roy Nuttersley has been dealt a pretty raw deal. While hideous parents show him little in the way of love and affection, school bullies make his life a misery. So Roy takes comfort in looking after the birds in his suburban garden, and in return the birds hatch a series of ambitious schemes to protect their new friend.
As with the best-laid plans, however, these get blown completely off course - and as a result the lives of both Roy and his arch tormentor, Harry Hodges are turned upside down. While Harry has a close encounter with God, Roy embarks on a voyage of discovery that draws in and impacts on everyone around him, including the local police, his headmaster and the national media. Where will it all end, and will life ever be quite the same for Roy Nuttersley?
"A delightful fairy story that deals sensitively and compellingly with real, modern-day issues." George Layton, actor, screenwriter and author of bestsellers, 'The Trick', 'The Swap' and 'The Fib'
"What an entrancing story. A real flight of fancy which will engage children in the plot and, at the same time, increase their understanding of real human relationships." lovereading.co.uk
"Just finished 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds'. Eyes full of tears. Would make a great movie wonderful images and thought provoking scenes." Bramwell Tovey, broadcaster and GRAMMY award-winning composer, Vancouver, Canada
Sleeping with the Blackbirds edition by Alex Pearl Children eBooks
Be careful who you offend. Some birds, and also some people for that matter, don’t respond well at all to certain kinds of insults.My favorite scenes were the ones that showed how the crows reacted once they’d figured out that Roy was a sad, lonely kid and decided to do something to make his life better. The crows had excellent reasons for going out of their way to help a human child. They had a very bird-like understanding of the world that was as remarkably different from the way people think as it was interesting to read about.
There were a lot of tangents in this story. I found it distracting to spend so much time on matters that didn’t seem to be that related to the main plot. It was hard for me to predict which tangents were going to pay off eventually and which ones contained information that wasn’t actually vital to understanding what was going to happen next.
This tale had a fantastic sense of humour. I wasn’t expecting to giggle when I began the first chapter, but there were many times when a description of a character or a conversation made me do just that. The author had a clever way of twisting common words and phrases around to show how they could be interpreted in an entirely new light with a few small changes to the way they were put together. This made following Roy’s adventures a great deal of fun.
Sleeping with the Blackbirds should be read by anyone who is looking for something humorous to read.
originally posted at long and short ya reviews
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Sleeping with the Blackbirds edition by Alex Pearl Children eBooks Reviews
At first blush, the title of Pearl’s original fairytale of a bullied pre-teen and his feathered protectors felt more like Ramsey Campbell vacationing in Bodega Bay; hinting toward the familiar La Cosa Nostra metaphor, 'sleeping with the fishes'. But unlike Hitchcock’s inexplicable avian menagerie, the title was meant to describe something that actually occurred in the story as these birds’ ultimate motivation was benevolent, not malevolent.
Pearl puts the fairytale aspect on full display, allowing the reader to ‘hear’ what the birds were ‘saying’ to each other. Enhancing the fantasy, the author assigns a specialize affinity to each species; the geese are the muscle, the magpies, thieves (I couldn’t get Rossini out of my head after reading that), and the blue tits, the interpreters of human speech. The leaders, as the title suggests, are the blackbirds.
The main protagonist, 11-year-old Roy Nuttersley doesn’t have an idyllic home life. His parents are invested in their self-absorbed priorities, chief among them is arguing with each other. To escape their incessant verbal contests, Roy seeks the solace of watching birds. He likes it so much, he built several bird feeders and hung them out for the birds to enjoy. Sensing Roy’s depressed emotional state, the intuitive birds take to following him to see what other influences are distracting the boy. If he becomes too depressed, he just might stop filling the bird feeders. The problems he experiences from an indifferent father and an obsessive compulsive mother are compounded when Roy goes to school. The class bullies, Harry Hodges and his friends, have targeted Roy for harassment and each day gets worse and worse. The last time, Harry had stolen Roy’s precious bird-watching binoculars.
For Harry’s part, stealing Roy’s binoculars wasn’t brazen enough to draw attention to his schemes, until one of his buddies suggested upping the ante; kidnapping Roy. As the reader quickly surmises, the birds will have none of this.
I don’t wish to give the game away by revealing too much of the plot. Suffice to say the ending results in a positive outcome for our protagonist, though the ending was a pleasant surprise for the reader. Even the bully’s well-drawn introspection, results in an optimistic resolution. It’s also a given that a fairytale is generally carried by the narrator, so hold that thought as you take in the story. One discordant note in the narrative were pronouncements to ‘global warming’ which didn’t appear to have anything to do with the plotline or the moral of the story. As a plot device, its inclusion had no relevance for the characters or the reader and struck me as gratuitous and unnecessary.
It may help comprehension of subsequent comments and observations if the official synopsis is read first.
The story contains a vast mixture of emotions and experiences and does an excellent job of showing how bad parenting may impact upon a child. The reader is given a sense of; how a child may feel; how they will try to find ways for dealing with their situation; the sorrow they experience when little comforts are destroyed or removed by the very people they are doing their best to cope with. The reader cannot help sympathising with the protagonist; Roy Nuttersley. They will admire his character and ‘secretly’ hope and encourage him to succeed. They may well find themselves laughing, cheering, crying and jumping for joy as Roy faces the vast range of experiences and challenges which assail him.
As the synopsis indicates, besides having to cope with his parents, Roy is also bullied. The emotions accompanying these experiences fear; despair; acceptance of the ‘inevitable’; seeking refuge/escape while knowing it is unlikely to be achieved, are clearly brought out. The accounts are vivid, not only causing the reader to commiserate but to also become enraged with the bullies, particularly Harry Hodges, the ring leader. The author attempts to balance the facts by also delving into the bullies’ backgrounds, seeking to understand and explain their behaviour. This is an intelligent approach that is rarely seen and should be appreciated. There is no attempt to turn this into an exegesis on the subject; the information is simply included as a, relevant, part of the tale. Evidently the author’s aim is to help his own children, for whom the book was originally written, understand the world they would be living in as well as to seek to understand and empathise with other people’s life conditions. Naturally, an unsympathetic background is never a valid excuse but such understandings help put matters into context. The author also shows how an act of kindness, when least expected or deserved, may alter someone’s perspective. The story progresses at a good pace and, despite having moral lessons discreetly imbedded within, remains entertaining throughout. There is no attempt or intent to labour moral points or turn the book into a lecture.
In addition to the ‘factual’ accounts there is a fantasy element to this story The Birds. The protagonist’s fascination with and kindness to them results in a camaraderie, though he may not recognise it. The author, whether an ornithologist or not, draws out the various bird’s reactions and behaviours in a very entertaining manner. The reader will undoubtedly laugh at some of their antics and cheer them on as they already have Roy. The lengths they go to in helping their friend, and themselves, are sometimes quite hilarious. In all parts the author paints a vivid picture that is easy to imagine. Is there ultimate success? The reader will have to find out for themselves.
The ending is unexpected and simply adds another delightful element to the book. It would be unfair to potential readers to give further details. Whether or not ‘YA’ is a reader’s normal genre most, young or old, will enjoy this story to some degree. It is well written and well told.
Be careful who you offend. Some birds, and also some people for that matter, don’t respond well at all to certain kinds of insults.
My favorite scenes were the ones that showed how the crows reacted once they’d figured out that Roy was a sad, lonely kid and decided to do something to make his life better. The crows had excellent reasons for going out of their way to help a human child. They had a very bird-like understanding of the world that was as remarkably different from the way people think as it was interesting to read about.
There were a lot of tangents in this story. I found it distracting to spend so much time on matters that didn’t seem to be that related to the main plot. It was hard for me to predict which tangents were going to pay off eventually and which ones contained information that wasn’t actually vital to understanding what was going to happen next.
This tale had a fantastic sense of humour. I wasn’t expecting to giggle when I began the first chapter, but there were many times when a description of a character or a conversation made me do just that. The author had a clever way of twisting common words and phrases around to show how they could be interpreted in an entirely new light with a few small changes to the way they were put together. This made following Roy’s adventures a great deal of fun.
Sleeping with the Blackbirds should be read by anyone who is looking for something humorous to read.
originally posted at long and short ya reviews
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