Recommendation: Each Little Bird That Sings

Each Little Bird That Sings

by Deborah Wiles

I first read this book in winter of fifth grade. My house was entirely boxed up because we were moving, and the only thing I could find was this book. It couldn't have been more perfect.

You know the drill. I steal the summary from Amazon and paste it here for you to read:

"Death is a way of life for the Snowberger family, since they run a funeral parlor out of their Mississippi home with the motto "We live to serve." Still, when 94-year-old Great-great-aunt Florentine Snowberger dies in the vegetable garden, no one can truly be prepared, even though she'd been bidding "good night and good-bye" to the family every night since she turned 90. Florentine's death is hard on 10-year-old Comfort, since the two were so close, even co-writing the Fantastic (and Fun) Funeral Food for Family and Friends. It's no surprise, then, when the annoyingly overwrought emotional displays of her young cousin Peach Shuggars and the sudden iciness of her alleged best friend Declaration Johnson send Comfort over the edge. Thank goodness for her shaggy "feel-good" dog Dismay who can eradicate all bad feelings with a single slobbery lick."

There's more to this summary, but it kind of spoils the book, so I'm not going to put it here.

This book had the potential to be so many different things. It could have been a funny, cutesy book that took the deaths of too lightly and not cared enough, but it could have also been too morbid and mature. I can happily report that it was neither of these things.

This book has the perfect mixture of sweetness, comfort, humor, family, acceptance, death, twists, conflict, and good story-telling. It's a back-to-basics kind of a book. These characters by no means take death lightly, but they do accept that they work at their family's funeral home and try to make the most of their situation by lamenting in the only possible ways that they can, which is really different for everyone.

If you decide to read this, keep in mind that it is a book for elementary and middle graders, so the font is huge, the characters names are extremely literal, and some of the formatting is downright annoying, but there I go judging a book by its cover, and that's not fair.

Don't listen to anything I say. I'm from the internet.