This is such a sweet, heartwarming, tugging-at-heart-strings, sweet (I have said that already, I know, but) read.

thanks to netgalley for the e-rc of this book.

“My Words Flew Away Like Birds” is a gentle but poignant story of a girl who has immigrated to the United States. Author Debora Pearson captures the struggle that my client experienced when her words don’t seem to work in a new place. I also appreciate that Pearson also acknowledged the struggle idioms and cliches present for nonEnglish speakers when immersed in an English environment. This book is a fantastic way to acknowledge the limitations of language and set clinical parameters around your language limits/competencies and to problem solve when words seem to be flying away like birds.

My words flew away like birds is auto 5 star reads for me. A touching story and simple yet cute illustration perfectly captured the essence of the story about make one's home in a entirely new place. Perfect read for kids to learn about cultural awarness.

Thank u to netgalley and kidscanpress for the advanced copy!

A beautiful story about a little girl who moves away from her country and the barrier of communication she faced in her new country.
The prose is simple enough for the target audience to understand and the illustrations are super cute.

What I find more important, is that it shows you how friendship and being accepted can help someone feel like they've found a new home. Plus, with the numbers of immigration raising higher and higher, I think this is a story that immigrant children will relate to and will also help non immigrant children to sympathize with them.

I found this book incredibly cute and easy to read, I'd love to read more from the author and the illustrator.

What a beautifully written and illustrated book! This will easily be one book for all my young readers. It's the story of a young girl who immigrates to a new city where she must learn and speak a new language. It will certainly appeal to those who have moved from a familiar place and are made to start over to fit in and communicate.
Yet, the themes of friendship, understanding, and adjustment are central, universal themes for all.
The joy of acclimating oneself to what is different and emerging victorious is so well described in this book. A lovely read!

This book was a cute story. I love the light colors and the watercolor type effect the illustrator uses. This story is good for kids who move or who are nervous to have to move somewhere where they don't know the language or the people. The author did a great job with the writing and the themes used. The book turned a scary change for anyone and turned it into a fun adventure.

This was an adorable and a beautiful book about how a child who doesn't know English communicates without words!
And the graphics were gorgeous, a perfect book for young kids!
Thank you Netgalley and Kids Can Press for a copy.

I received an electronic ARC from Kids Can Press through NetGalley.
Powerful message told from a young girl's perspective as she prepares for and then moves to a new country. Her mom taught her some basic English, but when she got to her new country, she discovered that others spoke too fast to understand and did not use the words and phrases she knew. Readers see how it feels to struggle to understand a new place. Many will relate to her situation and agree that words simply fly away too fast to comprehend. She does make a friend and that friend connects with her and helps her understand and feel accepted. The illustrations capture the mood and the frantic pace she feels swirling around her at school.

After reading this book, I know I will never look at children who join school mid-year or who are newcomers to the school or those who are learning a new language in the same way.

The story is about an immigrant child who has learnt a few words in English but those around her speak so fast that it sounds like an incomprehensible language, making her words “fly away”. As a result, she remains quiet and just listens and observes. She is called the “New Girl” – but it is not she who is ‘new’ but everything else around her, including the teacher, who is new to the girl. All of this changes when she meets another girl who needs her help and the words come to her naturally.

A must-read if you have emergent bilinguals in your class, especially for the rest of the class to understand the newcomer’s emotion better. Pre-order this today!

My Words Flew Away Like Birds is one of the most beautiful children's books I have read in a long time.
Everything from the illustrations, to the story, the prose, the message... all of it hit me right in the feels.
I loved everything about it!

A quite interesting story, where a girl has to learn new things from that new place which her parents migrated to, learning a lot of English and its use, easy English. Meeting new people and things from that new place.

A poetically told immigration story that fosters understanding and beautifully articulates how the desire to belong and the need for human connection are universal. A little girl learns some words in a new language to prepare for her move to a new country. But when she, her mother and her father arrive, “all her words fly away like birds.” The girl waits, and watches, and listens, trying to figure things out. Only, it's hard.

This story is something so beautiful, in addition to showing an easy and well-understood language, you can understand some acronyms, abbreviations and the English that everyone knows (Hello, How are You, Fine Thank you and you, What about you, I am Okay) it's okey, but it's a plus that the writter included the way that US talk with the others.

Debora Pearson’s new picture book, My Words Flew Away Like Birds, is a touching story about a child moving to a new country. Despite practicing the new language before the move, the little girl finds that when faced with native speakers, her words sound nothing like theirs. They speak fast, run words together, and she has difficulty knowing what anyone is saying. However, kindness knows no language barriers, and when she helps another little girl at the park, she begins to find her way, and her words, in this strange place.

This is a fantastic book for young children about having empathy for others. The illustrations are simple in nature but add to the story line.

My Words Flew Away Like Birds
by Debora Pearson
Kids Can Press
Children's Fiction
Pub Date 05 Oct 2021


I am reviewing a copy of My Words Flew Away Like Birds through Kids Can Press and Netgalley:



My Words Flew Away Like Birds is a poetically told immigration story that fosters understanding and beautifully articulates how the desire to belong and the need for human connection are universal. It tells of a little girl coming to a new part of the world, having to learn new words, a new way of life, and to make new friends. Her Mother and Father had taught her new words to learn for when they go to the new country but when she gets to the new country all the new words fly away like birds.






The girl waits, and watches, and listens, trying to figure things out. Only, it's hard. Then one day the girl meets someone who needs her help. And as she makes a new friend, she finds that the new words start to come easier becoming her words, at last.






My Words Flew Away Like Birds is a beautifully written, engaging story told in free verse that is accessible for young readers as well as those just learning to read in English. This story offers a powerful lesson in empathy for children everywhere. The story is inspired by the many newcomer families Debora Pearson has met in her work as a children's librarian in a bustling urban center. Both timely and universal, it provides young children with an opportunity to expand their worldview and be inspired by how the heroine prevails and finds connection.





The simply whimsical illustrations done by Shrija Jain adds a playfulness and warmth to the narrative. A perfect read-aloud, this sweet and sensitive picture book encourages all children to celebrate inclusion and highlights the character education traits of resilience, kindness and empathy.



I give My Words Flew Away Like Birds five out of five stars!



Happy Reading!

The story of a young girl who moves to a new country. Her parents try to prepare her by teaching her some words and phrases in the new language she'll be using, but when she gets there she is so nervous that her "words flew away like birds." Fortunately there are things, like friendship, that cross language barriers and help to make this new place feel like home for her. For anyone who has ever been the new, odd one out, and has experienced that nervousness and fear, this book will show and capture that experience perfectly, while also providing hope.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

My Words Flew Away Like Birds is a beautiful picture book that tells the story of a young girl who has just immigrated to an English-speaking country with her family. Despite learning some introductory phrases, the girl is struck by how different the language sounds when casually spoken. I think the book does a really great job of representing how isolating being surrounded by a language you don't know can be. I especially loved the imagery of being a "tiny bug on a little leaf" just watching and listening.
A lot of children's books bring up the topic of being "the new kid", but this is the first that I've ever seen that frames everything else as being new, too. The world around a "new kid" only has to adjust to them, whereas the child has to adjust to a whole new world. Being labeled "new" dismisses the background they come from and diminishes how enormous of a change it is for them.
As someone who has tried to learn a language only to move and realize trying to understand and speak it amongst native speakers is a whole new ballgame, I thought this book did a really fantastic job of portraying the feelings that come with it.

What a gem of a book to express how disorienting relocation and absorbing new language can be through the eyes of a child. It expressed the sadness and longing for what was familiar, curiosity for what is new and the universal nature of showing empathy for others that transcends all languages.

Thank you to Kids Can Press for the gifted copy.
#Mywordsflewawaylikebirds #netgalley

This is a BEAUTIFUL explanation for those who may not clearly understand the confusion and struggle that comes with emigrating to another country. When you learn specific phrases in order to conduct conversation, then those phrases aren't used, everything else you might want to say seems to fly away. I enjoyed the happy-for-now ending when there was some connection and growth in the new place.

This is a beautifully illustrated book for younger children. The simple story tells the story of a little immigrant girl and the difficulties she faces settling into her new environment. It is written in a very easy, accessible style and what shines through is how often children, in the end, don't need words to make friends, they are much better at just connecting without seeing differences; something we adults could learn from. A book which will be a real addition to any school or library collection.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is a children's book. I found this to be a cute story about learning a new language and being in a new place. Cute graphics. 4 stars

A brief drama that just about manages to break out from the frame of "worthy book about something" and enter the world of "entertaining story". It is a book with a specific intent, however – to convey the problems an immigrant child would have with a new language in the fast-talking, colloquial fashion of her contemporaries, and to encourage children in a similar situation. For that niche purpose it does very well, but I can't say it's a title that would entertain all-comers. The four stars reflect how well it does as regards its intended goal.