A slender book with two beginnings, offering a dual variation of the same story, which refers to the cycle of life. The dominant illustrations and restrained use of text convey a message for readers of any age.

Children’s and Young Adult

This charming little book is full of surprises: it has the unusually small format of a pocket diary, and the reader soon finds that it is a double book: the story can be read from both ends, which meet in the middle on a folded, double-sided page with a panoramic illustration. One part of the story tells the tale of an elderberry seed that dropped from the beak of a white fledgling bird, while the other part depicts the adventures of the bird itself. The narrative gently portrays the passage of time and the cycle of life, encourages readers to be observant, and highlights the role of random chance in our world. The text is brief: no more than four lines of simple sentences in capital letters are concentrated on the lower half of the page. The book is characterised by a stylistic purity, which is emphasised by the composition, colour and technique of Klára Zahrádková’s illustrations. The images cleverly underpin the story’s details; readers big and small will love coming back to this book again and again.

Age: 7+