David Almond’s books are exemplars of multilayered texts. My Dad’s A Birdman, Almond’s first chapter book for younger audiences, is a good example. From an adult point of view, parents that squawk, eat worms and spiders, and wear wings are probably not sane. From an eight-year-old child’s perspective, these behaviors may be understood simply as a way to heal a broken soul. In Almond’s world, Lizzie intelligently takes over when her Dad assumes the aforementioned traits. Polly Dunbar’s watercolor and collage il lustrations, adorning virtually every page, increase the humor and pleasure of an already exuberant (albeit admittedly dark) fantasy. 2009 USBBY Out standing International Books List, UKLA Children’s Publishing Award. David Almond is the winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award. He also has received the Whitbread Award and the Carnegie Medal. lmp

Originally published by Walker Books Great Britain, in 2007.

"Flight as a metaphor for love’s transcendence over grief takes a new form in this comic piece of magical realism."
-School Library Journal

In a rainy town in the north of England, there are strange goings-on. Dad is building a pair of wings, eating flies, and feathering his nest. Auntie Doreen is getting cross and making dumplings. Contest barker Mr. Poop is parading the streets shouting louder and louder, and even Mr. Mint, the headmaster, is not quite himself. And watching it all is Lizzie, missing her mam and looking after Dad by letting him follow his newfound whimsy. From an inspired creative pairing comes a story of the Great Human Bird Competition - an exuberant tale of the healing power of flights of fancy, and a very special father-daughter bond.