Who is Shrieking So Early by Ellen DeLange tells the story of a boy named Sam who is awakened every morning by the loud shrieking of a magpie who lives outside his window. Sam tries a variety of things to quiet the magpie ranging from yelling at the bird to spraying it with a hose, but nothing stops Sam's early morning wake up call. Eventually Sam starts to befriend the bird and even teaches him some tricks. At the end of the story, Sam's wish finally comes true when he is awakened not by a shriek, but by something different. . .

This is such a cute and uplifting story about a young boy and a bird that lives near his window. It teaches kids a lesson about unlikely friendships, tolerance and understanding. It would be great for kids who live near lots of wildlife. The illustrations were cheerful and really helped the story move along in a cheerful way. Would definitely recommend to patrons at my library when it comes out.

Review to come 1st of May to blog/Goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review~

I am honest that I picked the book for the title. It immediately made me curious about the book. Especially since I had some experience myself with birds waking me up with shrieking or tweeting in the early hours. 

This book is about Sam who keeps waking up in the morning because a magpie is outside his window SHRIEKING. Throughout the book we follow Sam in his efforts to get the bird to stop SHRIEKING so loudly in the morning. I had quite a lot of fun seeing what Sam was planning and how his plans slowly changed when he got some advice. From then the story gets even better and I was just rooting for Sam to make the bird understand. Boy, I wish I could have done that with the birds bothering me, but sadly they aren't smart magpies but instead pigeons... Thankfully, these days no more bother with that, but I remember the days I woke up because of the cooing outside. 

I loved seeing Sam's dog go with him everywhere, and one time I just wanted to tap Sam on his shoulder and make him see that his dog wanted to go walkies. :P

I do have to wonder where the parents are. I mean, especially in the beginning.... Sam screams, shouts, and makes a racket. That all around 6.30am. I don't have kids myself, but believe me if I had kids and they would do this every day I would certainly come outside or to their room to have a stern talking with them. Great that you want the bird to stop, but no need to wake up parents and the neighbourhood. 

The art was OK at times, not always my favourite. 

I enjoyed this book and I loved the solution in the end. Magpies are smart indeed!

I read this book to my eight month old and he loved the pictures and thought the “SHRIEK” sound was hysterical. I would absolutely read this book to him when he’s old enough to understand the moral of the story, I thought it was a really cute way to teach kids to work out their issues with other people.

This simple book is all about problem solving and how perseverance and befriending a would-be foe can turn that foe into a friend.

Early one morning before Sam's alarm clock goes off he is shrewdly awakened by a terrible, annoying, loud... SHRIEK! SHRIEK! SHRIEK! sound. He bolts straight up in his bed and wonders what's happening. He discovers a bird in the tree outside of his bedroom window that is the cause of the screeching noise.

Sam bangs on the window and his dog joins in the descent with some barks but the bird completely ignores them and continues on his rowdy rant. The bird, which is a magpie, returns early again and again and each time Sam tries to shoo it away but to no avail. It won't budge.

Finally someone suggests that perhaps the best strategy would be for Sam to try and befriend the bird because Magpies are extremely smart and he just may respond to that kindness and finally stop shrieking. Do you think Sam will be successful and make a newfound friend?

The illustrations are colourful and delightful and the story is heartwarming. The book offers a great lesson on how to handle difficult situations in your life. I recommend this book.

The illustrations in this book are gorgeous! I don't know that the story would really hold my 3yr old's attention. It's a sweet book, though.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Who Is Shrieking So Early? Is a story about a little boy who keeps being woken up early by a magpie outside. Although I liked the idea of this book and it's illustrations, it fell short with the writing style and some sentences felt very out of place.

Boy, could I relate to this colorful children’s tale! A little boy is awakened too early by a magpie. It happens again and again, until the boy befriends the raucous bird. It reminds me of the adage to make friends with your enemies. Charming illustrations and a sweet story make this a treat for young children or any troubled sleeper!

4 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 11 May 2021
#ClavisPublishing #NetGalley

Thanks to the author, Clavis Publishing, and NetGalley for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.

This book goes through a child’s struggle with a bird who keeps waking him up. He tries different things so he can sleep. Is he successful by the end of the book? Read to find out.

This book has sweet illustrations and will probably please very young children particular with its repetition.

I am not a morning person, so this book definitely caught my eye. I hate rude awakenings for sure! Sam has a problem--someone keeps shrieking in the morning and waking him up. A magpie has taken up residence in the tree by his house. At the suggestion of a--friendly stranger?--Sam figures out how to deal with his early morning noisemaker.

This book was translated from Dutch, so the book reads a little weirdly. The sentences aren't constructed how you might be used to in a children's book. It's still a good story, and it has very cute illustrations., and the resolution to the problem is a good lesson on how to handle difficult situations. The illustrations and words are also separate, so you may need to adjust font size.

Hmmm... This catered for filling some time, but wasn't really that brilliant. A young lad keeps getting woken up by the noise of a magpie in the tree outside his bedroom, when he'd rather not use such an alarm clock. Trying everything to put the bird off bar chop the tree down, he gets told it might be intelligent enough to be friendly, and that's it. If it's a lesson in how animals might be smart and companionable, it fails. If it wants to have a surprise ending, it doesn't. If it wants to make a dog carrying a pair of slippers look like he's bitten into a jumbo butterfly, then it succeeds. Not offensively bad, but countless classic books deserve your attention and coin before this.

Wonderful book from start to finish. It encourages children to find alternative solutions to problems as well as emphasizes the term "please" regardless of the person (or bird in this case) to which it is directed. The illustrations are also superb and incredibly aesthetic not only to my niece as we read it through but to me as well!

A sweet and funny story about a boy and the bird who wakes him up. Sam is awoken every morning by the shrieking of a bird outside his window. He cant take it! Sam embarks on a journey to get the bird to wake him up quietly, and maybe even become friends. This is a fun story and the artwork is adorable.

I admittedly didn't understand the ending to this story, although the illustrations were cute and I imagine kids will enjoy trying to see what Sam comes up with next to try to get the magpie to be quiet. One other minor point of confusion was that Sam's dog was never mentioned by name. Since there are no other characters in the book other than Sam, I found it a little odd that the dog also wouldn't be introduced/personalized a bit more. On the whole though, a cute, engaging book.

Who is Shrieking so Early? was cute and simple. My boys thought the magpie was very funny and really liked the ending.