Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds and Matt Davies
Published: Roaring Brook Press, 2015
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GoodReads
A nerdy bird who doesn’t fit in with the cool birds finds a group of welcoming bird nerds to join, but they aren’t as inclusive as they seem.
The protagonist bird finds himself at home with a large group of birds who love the same nerdy things he does, including lightsabers and RPG games. They accept him immediately but do some gatekeeping of their own when Vulture shows up. She’s not a nerd, she’s just strange, and they treat her as the same kind of outcast the cool birds considered the nerds. That situation is all too familiar to those of us who know geek culture a little too well.
However, are we really describing the same old high school stereotypes these days as we used to write about it in the ’80s? I skimmed through other GoodReads reviews for this book and found many readers responded with the same reservations about the first half. The ending is interesting and makes an excellent point. Why depict one-dimensional jocks and bullies at the beginning and say they have no friends of their own? As I recall, the athletes I went to high school with had plenty of friends.
The art is appealing and with its scratchy ink lines and broad caricatures, feels like it was done by a newspaper editorial cartoonist. It’s no surprise that’s exactly what Matt Davies does for a living.
I’m grateful the story didn’t land on “cool jocks bad, nerds good,” but it did feel like it was going to stop there for most of the book. Nerdy Birdy ultimately delivers a strong message with out-of-the-box illustrations.