Emily the Chickadee

Is it possible to fall in love at first sight with a black-capped little bird? Yes, girls and boys fall in love at first sight with puppies and kittens. So why not with a five-inch chickadee?

One spring morning, a little girl looks up a tree and sees a chickadee. The black-capped little bird returns the little girl’s gaze and they know in their hearts that they’ve found a friend in each other.

A true story, Emily the Chickadee is a three-part series about the friendship between a little girl and a black-capped chickadee. Written by Carol Zelaya and illustrated by Kristin Metcalf, the first book is entitled, Emily Waits for Her Family.

Approximately six by six inches, the hard-bound book consists of 32 pages, but the story proper unfolds in ten double spreads. The layout has the text on the left side and the illustration on the right side.

The text is a narrative poem which consists of six to eight lines of verse on each side of every double spread. The lines burst with life, enthusiasm, a sense of expectation, surprise, and joy in the wonders of nature.

Warm and happy shades of green dominate each page of illustration which bleeds into the borderless imagination of children. There are yellows, blues, browns, pinks, purples, and lavenders, but the black-capped chickadee with her white cheeks and brown breast is always in the limelight.

In fact, the nameless girl appears only five times while Emily, the chickadee, appears on every page. Ironically, it is the nameless girl who gives the chickadee a name, Emily.

It seems that the little girl has been a chickadee watcher because she can tell in one look that her new friend Emily is going to lay eggs soon. True enough, Emily starts building a nest the very next morning.

To create suspense, the first-person narrator – the girl – addresses the reader and asks:
“Can you guess where she might be?
Do you see the Chickadee?”

A child reader will surely want to turn the page, right now!

To whet children’s natural curiosity, each stanza, starting with the second double spread, begins with the question, “What do I see?” It certainly reminds one of Eric Carle’s well-loved picture book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

In addition to the visual images, there are auditory ones as well: “Emily sits on the fence chirping happily.” With flowers all over the garden, there are also images which appeal to one’s sense of smell.

What does it all mean? Child readers will probably not be able to articulate the meaning of the story beyond the literal level of witnessing and rejoicing in the wonders of creation.

Hopefully, children everywhere will imbibe values embedded in the story and will share the nameless little girl’s respect for the bird. Unobtrusively, she observes the bird as it builds a nest till its family becomes complete. She never disturbs the chickadee.

Does this book have any weakness?

In the ninth double spread, the picture-text relationship disappoints. The text oozes with suspense and makes for a compelling page turn:
“Another surprise is waiting for me.
The nest is empty… finally.”

But the illustration does not show the empty nest at all. There is no element of surprise in it.

Is there a symbolic or metaphorical level in this book? Again, most children will probably not bother to extend the meaning of this simple, adorable book. But I started to think deeper when my 5-year old granddaughter asked where the birdie daddy-to-be was.

I said he was probably busy working.

I read up on chickadees and learned that the females choose their mates and they remain monogamous. The male chickadee is a hands-on dad who helps build the nest and feed the birdlings.

So where was the birdie daddy-to-be?

Is this book, Emily Waits for Her Family, a metaphor for single mothers? Is the little girl nameless because she represents abandoned children who grow up in orphanages? Is it the reason she never smiles in the pictures although the text is bursting with joy?

Maybe I’m over-reading this simple, adorable little book about the black-capped chickadee who returns the little girl’s gaze and instantly know in their hearts that they’ve found a friend in each other.

Maybe I should read the other two books in the series….