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Caged

Book Synopsis

In this wordless picture book, a bluebird builds her nest and watches on from the safety of her tree as two eccentric gentlemen construct an enormous palace of caged birds. But when the gentlemen go in to admire their handiwork, the bluebird has an idea…

While a bluebird builds her nest in the forest, two eccentric gentlemen have a more ambitious construction in mind: a vast palatial building, made from birdcages filled with colourful parrots. As the trees come down and the structure goes up, the bluebird watches on. More and more caged birds are consigned to their fate until at last a huge dome completes the work. But when the celebrating architects go in to admire their creation, the little bluebird brings their ambitions crashing down around them.

A witty tale of freedom and retribution for readers of any age.

Our Review Panel says...

Caged is a wordless picture book in which the simple, effective illustrations build up in small steps to the final ‘finished’ pictures. The story begins with a bluebird making a nest in her forest and she appears to be watching the actions of two men interfering there. As her nest is growing, she watches these men destroying this forest, which houses colourful parrots. As the men destroy the parrots’ habitat, they cage each parrot they find and build a palatial structure with the caged parrots. The slow build-up of the illustrations throughout the book means that there are plenty of clues to spot on each page to show how the story is developing and to predict the next part of the story…