Nerdy Birdy Tweets

by Aaron Reynolds, Matt Davies (Illustrator)

Overview

Nerdy Birdy and his best friend, Vulture, are very different. Nerdy Birdy loves video games, but Vulture finds them BORING. Vulture loves snacking on dead things, but Nerdy Birdy finds that GROSS. Luckily, you don’t have to agree on everything to still be friends.

One day, Nerdy Birdy joins Tweetster, and the friend requests start flying in. Vulture watches as Nerdy Birdy gets swept up in his new friendships, but when she finally gets angry, Nerdy Birdy knows just what to do to make things right.

A Neal Porter Book

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626721289
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Series:	Nerdy Birdy
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	30,156
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Aaron Reynolds is a New York Times-bestselling author of many highly acclaimed books for kids, including Carnivores, Chicks and Salsa, Joey Fly, Private Eye, and the Caldecott Honor-winning Creepy Carrots! He also wrote Nerdy Birdy. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife, two kids, four cats, and between three and ten fish, depending on the day.

Matt Davies was the recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons, the inaugural 2004 Herblock Prize, and the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He is the author/illustrator of Ben Rides On and Ben Draws Trouble, and the illustrator of Nerdy Birdy. He and his wife, Lucy, live in Wilton, Connecticut, with their three children.

Editorial Reviews

07/17/2017
Nerdy Birdy and Vulture, who became pals in 2015’s Nerdy Birdy, return in this social media–themed sequel, which puts their relationship to the test after Nerdy Birdy starts making online friends on Tweetster and ignoring the friend right in front of him. After @nerdybirdy tweets an unflattering lunch photo of @vulturegirl (“She eats dead things. Ewwwwwww!!”), Vulture has had enough, leading to a line that seems to sum up the book’s reason for existence: “Just because you thought it, doesn’t mean you should tweet it.” It’s advice that translates just fine to nondigital situations (“If you can’t say something nice...”), but despite Reynolds’s sharp dialogue and Davies’s appealingly ugly-cute illustrations, the plot feels mismatched to the book’s audience—though kids will get the Angry Worms reference just fine. Ages 4–8. Agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"There’s a lesson here about how easy it is to misread and misuse tone when it comes to electronic communication, but it’s the entertaining birds-of-a-feather friendship dynamic that’s the biggest tweet, er, treat for readers."—Horn Book

From the Publisher

2017-06-14
An unlikely avian friendship is threatened by an obsession with social media in this follow-up to Nerdy Birdy (2015).Big slouchy Vulture and Nerdy Birdy, tiny and brown with big, round eyeglasses, are best friends, though they're very different. Nerdy Birdy loves playing video games, while Vulture loves snacking on dead things. Together, they enjoy taking goofy pictures of each other, making silly faces, and making fun of each other's lunch. One day, Nerdy Birdy discovers an amazing new game. It's called Tweetster; it does awesome things. After a week, Nerdy Birdy has over 500 new friends across the globe, but he doesn't seem to notice the friend right in front of him. Vulture gets bored and flies away, but joining Tweetster herself restores common ground between the friends. But when Vulture logs onto the site, she finds a picture of herself and an insulting caption from Nerdy Bird. This thoughtless act causes Vulture to flap away for good. Nerdy Birdy reaches out for sympathy to his virtual network, but the response is underwhelming. Determined to find Vulture, Nerdy Birdy searches high and low, finally finding her and declaring, "One real live you is worth a thousand Tweetster friends." Reynolds' friendship fable is straightforwardly told. Davies' lively and imaginative pictures, in pen, ink, and watercolor, consistently delight. But are very young readers, at whom the book seems aimed, using social media? Still, cute and clever, and if it gives some prophylactic friendship pointers to children not yet networked, here's hoping they'll remember them. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews