A blackbird tries to catch the rays of the sun and hurts his wing. He asks passersby for help, but no one will help him, until a young boy takes pity on the bird and nurses him back to health.

The story has a good message of kindness and generosity, but the plot is kind of strange. A random lady passes by eating cake with a spoon, and refuses to help the bird because she doesn't want to get feathers on her new dress. Who walks down a public road eating cake while they walk? That's weird. The illustration shows her carrying an entire cake on a big platter with a spoon sticking out of the cake. What kind of freakish glutton carries a massive platter of cake down a dusty gravel road and eats it while walking around?

The rhyming text is not that great in places. I am very picky about children's books that use rhyme, since they are usually badly written. This book rhymes "calamity" and "family". That actually hurts my brain. The rhythm of the lines don't always match. I've seen worse, but this isn't great writing.

The illustrations are oddly misty, with distorted lines and weird perspectives that don't match up. People's faces look warped somehow, and their features aren't symmetrical. There is also one page that has a completely different art style from the rest of the book, which I found really strange. Some of the illustrations are extreme close-ups of people's hands or faces, and others are a whole panoramic scene of the road and fields. The angle changes so drastically from page to page that it's disconcerting.

This book is okay. It needs a more coherent design though. I showed the art to my artist brother and he said, "Oof."  I showed the text to my English teacher mom, and she said, "Awkward wording throughout." It's too bad, because the concept is a good one.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.