The Books

Igor, the Bird Who Couldn't Sing

by Satoshi Kitamura

Hardcover, 40 pages

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (2005-09-10)

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Amazon Description

Everybody has a song
 
Igor has been looking forward to spring, when he will sing for the first time in his life. But when the Dawn Chorus begins, the other birds laugh at the notes coming out of his beak. After unsuccessful voice lessons, Igor decides never to sing again and sets off to find a place where there is no music. He roams the globe, which is surprisingly abundant in song, until, at last, he finds a lonely, empty plain where it is quiet. Heartbroken, Igor roosts on a rock until a splendid sunset moves him so much that he breaks his vow of symphonic silence.

Distinctive and artistic illustrations filled with energetic details make this a wonderful story about a bird who ultimately realizes he is not as alone or atonal as he had thought.

One Potato Review

But he loves to sing! Problem is no one can stand to listen to him, and the pages where Igor endeavors to find some distance from the musical merriments of garage rocking canines, and string-playing sheep, and bongo-mad crocodiles, amount to some extra poignancy when he finally settles down in the desert where the sky is “so beautiful that Igor didn’t know if he should feel happy or sad.” And where someone is fated to profit from Igor’s enthusiasm, even if he should need to wake them from extinction. By the unmistakable Satoshi Kitamura, who nevertheless appears to be honoring the wonder - and myriad receptions - of music by expanding his usual palate. What are those, Kandinskys dangling from the sky? 

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