How to heal a broken wing

ABOUT THE BOOK
FAMILY ACTIVITIES

How to heal a broken wing

Text & Illustrations : Bob Graham/ Translation:Samar Zaher Atallah / Publisher: Kinneret

n a city full of hurried people, only young Will notices the bird lying hurt on the ground. With the help of his sympathetic mother, he gently wraps the injured bird and takes it home. In classic Bob Graham style, the beauty is in the details: the careful ministrations with an eyedropper, the bedroom filled with animal memorabilia, the saving of the single feather as a good-luck charm for the bird’s return to the sky. Wistful and uplifting, here is a tale of possibility — and of the souls who never doubt its power

Family Activities

Our book is a sentimental book that embodies the meaning of sympathy, compassion and kindness to animals. In the midst of the crowd, and without anyone caring, Nabil rescued the wounded bird amid the lack of interest in the others around it, and insisted on taking it home and taking care of it ...

Video

Dear Parents,

What do we do when we see someone suffering? What do we do when we see a wounded animal? Do we leave it, or do we help it?

The book allows us to have a rich dialogue with our children about many values and topics, such as: compassion and kindness to animals; supporting the needy and the weak; hoping for recovery.

In the early years of a child’s life, the ability to empathize and sympathize develops, and there is an important role for parents in developing this ability in children, by giving a personal model of animal welfare and support for the weak in need, and through the emotional and social dialogue they conduct after reading children’s books.

We can read the story several times and recall the events of the story with our children by using the drawings.

Family Activities

Let’s talk:
• About the plot: The book is mainly based on drawings. We can encourage our children to “read” the drawings and help them describe them using accurate verbs and vocabulary and make connections between sentences. We can ask them: Why do you think Nabil noticed the wounded bird by himself in the midst of a crowd of people, while no one else noticed it? what did he do?
• About feelings: We can talk with our children about the bird’s feelings. We can ask them: How did the bird feel when it hit the glass? How did it feel when no one noticed it?
• About sympathy and help: Nabil alone noticed the wounded bird in a crowd of people, while no one else noticed it, and he helped it. We can ask our children: How does Nabil feel about the bird? Why did he help it? How did the bird feel as well? Have they ever seen someone who needs help? How did they feel, and what did they do?
• About taking care of the bird: Nabil took care of the bird with the help of his parents until it recovered. We can talk with our children and describe what Nabil has done.
Let’s mimic
With our children, we can look closely at the moment Nabil released the bird. Together, we can imagine the bird talking and telling the other birds about what Nabil did. We can take on the characters and act them out with our children.
Let’s communicate
• To adopt an animal, we can contact the Animal Welfare Organization. We can explore our favourite animals and find information about them with our kids.
Let’s enrich our language
With our children, we can track the book with its sequential drawings, and we can enrich and develop the narrative ability of our child by describing the events in a sequence, such as: The father prepared a house for the bird from the cardboard box, and the mother bandaged the broken wing, and then...
Let’s take initiative
• With our children, we can pick a bowl to fill with water and place it on the balcony or on the edge of the window and designate it to water the birds. We should make sure to fill it with water every day. We can also put a bowl of water and leftover food for stray animals on the edge of the road.