Eep!    

from a review in Storytimebooks:

This is another wonderful book from Gecko Press, and their “curiously good books” phrase is particularly apt in this case. De Morgen, a Flemish newspaper, called it “an absolute masterpiece of children’s literature,” and it’s difficult to disagree with that assessment. Written and illustrated by Joke van Leeuwen, translated by Bill Nagelkerke, it’s a novel of around 150 pages which was published in The Netherlands in 1996 and has won several awards in Europe. It’s full of wit, whimsy and wisdom and often challenges the reader’s preconceptions about all sorts of concepts, from story, to family, to birdness. It has another stunningly memorable first page. “Take three lines… (3 lines are drawn.).. Curve them a little… (The lines are curved a little.).. Join them together…(They are joined) And here is the landscape in which this story begins.” Wow!!! Warren is out birdwatching one day when he looks under a bush (not something he usually does) and finds something which seems to be part human girl and part bird.  He and his wife Tina feed Birdy, (later Beedy) as they call her, and soon she’s flying around the house. And just when Warren and Tina have become really attached to her, out the window. Tina realises that she must be free, but is really sad not to have said goodbye, and the rest of the story is their quest to find her again. Terrific storytelling, very different, but very good. Suitable for ages nine to ninety.