Two Green Birds, by Geraldo Valerio
Francisco lives in Brazil and visits his Grandmother every day, helping her in the garden and then eating baked treats and drinking coffee (yes! coffee!) with her in her kitchen. One day, his Grandmother shows him a surprise – two green parakeets that have been given to her by a neighbour who knew of her love of birds. Francisco spends the next several days dreaming of the day that the parakeets fall in love with him and ride around on his shoulder and play with his hair. Unfortunately, his dreaming amounts to nothing as the two little parakeets refuse to eat and tremble in fear every time he comes near. Eventually Francisco figures out what the two (wild) parakeets need to be happy. It’s not difficult. I’m sure you’ve figured it out as well.
This is a children’s book, so it’s not trying hard to be subtle or nuanced. The lesson is about the same as getting hit in the face with a pie (which is what you deserve if you try to capture and domesticate a pair of wild birds). However! The story dips its toe into some of the reasons that birds, and other animals, have been mistreated around the world. In this case, it’s superstition (green birds bring good luck!) and misinformation (the Grandmother knows parakeets cannot live alone, but assumes having 2 in a cage is the answer to that problem). Ultimately, it’s the young boy who courageously accepts that he must release the birds to save them. Despite the obvious ending, the story was surprisingly sweet and moving. I highly recommend it for any young child.
A cute moment from this book. At one point, Francisco describes the parakeets as the “greenest birds he’s ever seen.” When I was volunteering this past summer during PEPtBO’s summer MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) program, I was extracting a few birds from a mosquito-infested location and I got a call on the walkie just to check up on how I was doing. At that exact moment, a bright blue bird* flew into the mist net in front of me so I answered “the bluest bird I’ve ever seen just flew into the net.” The banders have enjoyed reminding me of that several times over, to their great delight.
Grandma took me to the backyard. Hanging from the guava tree was a cage.
“Look at the gift I received yesterday,” she said.
In the care were two parakeets. They were very quiet, sitting on a perch. Their round eyes were black and watching. Their bodies were covered with smooth green feathers.
There were as green as fresh leaves, as green as the inside of an avocado, as green as the skin of a guava not yet ripe.
They were the greenest birds I had ever seen. Their round curved beaks looked like seashells.
Grandma looked at the cage and said “Precious! Precious! Precious!”
“Grandma, my father told me that if you see a green bird, it is a sign that something good is going to happen. He said green birds bring you good luck.”
“And now I have two green birds,” Grandma said. “I’ll have twice as much good luck.”
*It was an Indigo Bunting, and it absolutely was the bluest bird I have ever seen!