Review by Booklist Review
A boy finds a sick bird on his windowsill and asks his grandfather for help. After drinking some water, the bird perks up, and Grandad takes it outdoors. When it reappears, the boy suggests feeding it pancakes, but Grandad takes it to a blueberry bush. While the boy hopes to keep the bird, his grandfather mildly, repeatedly tells him that it should be free. All three journey up a mountain to a special tree where hundreds of colorful birds join them in its branches. When the flock takes to the air and flies, the boy and his grandpa float off with them and then descend and land back home. Children familiar with Usher's Seasons with Grandad series, including Snow (2015), Rain (2017), and Storm (2018), will cheer the return of this adventuresome duo in a new quartet of nature-themed picture books, beginning with this volume. The main characters' relationship grounds the story so firmly that even the magical flight seems believable. Expressive ink drawings, tinted with watercolors, illuminate the story. An imaginative picture book with broad appeal.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A child and grandfather help a fine feathered friend. The child's first-person narration recounts the discovery of a sickly bird one morning. The grandfather and child (who both appear White) nurse the bird back to health throughout the course of the day. Each time they do something for the bird, they leave it outside to set it free, but it returns to them. Finally, the grandfather suggests that they search for a tree like one he sees alongside a picture of the same type of bird in a bird book. At this point in the story, the colorful watercolor-and-ink illustrations take a turn toward the fantastic, with the child and grandfather traversing rocky, mountainous terrain to reach the tree and the mild, English pastel palette taking on dramatic tones. Soon after they reach their destination, an enormous flock of colorful birds (depicted on the cover) alights on the branches, with the human characters perched alongside them. They all enjoy a "midnight feast" of oversized berries and then the birds fly the child and grandfather "all the way home" for breakfast. Usher's art, which bears a resemblance to Quentin Blake's style, makes the most of panels to show sequential movement in this scene. The mechanics of the feat are not quite clear, but the thrill is. The bird they rescued stays with the flock, but there's no sadness in that fact (though the child hopes that the bird "visits again tomorrow"). Opening itself up to myriad conversations and interpretations, Free is fabulous. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
