Amazon.com: Customer reviews: White Bird: A Wonder Story (A Graphic Novel)

Top positive review

Stop Reviewing Binding!!!

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2019

This book is amazing, powerful, and a must read for all ages, not just kids. I believe the imagery that accompanies the text will have huge impact—I had a knot in my stomach just about the whole way through and I mean that In the very best way. Wow is RJ Palacio talented!

I also just want to say that these reviews should be written for the content in the book. Please stop reviewing things like the binding!!!! Readers need to know whether or not the story is compelling and not whether the book is made of paper. Grrr. If you are upset about the quality of the binding or packaging or anything unrelated to the actual art, write the publisher or Amazon. Giving the book a rating based on paper quality doesn’t help reader consumers looking for an excellent book to read. And, it totally does a disservice to the author.

116 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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christinaboatwright

Insinuates Trump’s immigration practices are like Hitlers

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2019

Sadly the story itself was pretty good. A great introduction to small children regarding the holocaust. Unfortunately this book has a political agenda and compares Trumps immigration laws and practices to Hitler and the Holocaust. I hate it when children’s books try to indoctrinate our kids. Leave your political views out of it! Please see the attached pictures to know what I am talking about.

242 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Deborah

Author inserts her politics

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

I was so sorry to find that this book equates the horrors of the Holocaust with the difficulties of policy on our country’s southern border.

164 people found this helpful

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Please no politics!

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

The general storyline is much the same as what is told in The Julian Chapter, with some additional details. I do like how the author handled the big emotional scene near the end with Julian (the original Julian, not the grandson) and the bird symbolism that ties everything together.

Unfortunately, the author decided to get political at the end of the book - I wish authors wouldn't do this! Especially in books intended for younger audiences. It soured the entire book for me. While I loved The Julian Chapter almost as much as Wonder, White Bird didn't live up to my expectations. Perhaps that's because I already knew how the story would go (though I've re-listened to Julian's book multiple times and enjoy it each time). Perhaps Wonder and The Julian Chapter (and even parts of Christopher and Charlotte's stories) have just set the bar too high. Perhaps it was the political elements at the end. Perhaps it was some combination of all these. I've been looking forward to this book ever since I heard about it a year ago, and I was disappointed.

Other reviewers also mentioned the binding. It's some strange mix of paperback and hardback (a paperback with some hard paper/cardboard glued to the front and back, but not the spine), and I agree - it probably won't hold up if a copy is reread multiple times (like in a school, where this book is likely headed).

To conclude, I love Sara and Julian/Tourteau's story (at least as told in the Julian Chapter); but I do not love this version of it.

112 people found this helpful

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L. Cole

binding compromised

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2020

Verified Purchase

I am an avid Amazon customer and was disappointed in the quality of the bindings for this book that I ordered for one of my classrooms. As you can see 4 of the 15 books I ordered were damaged after one class read it. They were only handled by one student each ;-(

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beckie carlson

Bonding fail

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

The binding on this book fell apart before I owned it to read. I’ll be returning it. Sad

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Isaac

Product came soaked in what smells like windex.

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

Delivery was great, the product itself was damaged.

Helpful

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2019

Such a disappointment. I thought the book was beautifully illustrated and told a marvelous story of sacrifice and love but then. . . Sigh. It turned political. Now, I agree that the holocaust was, among many things, political- but the senseless, cruel, and truly evil slaughter of millions of people, in their own land no less, in no way compares to the current detaining of illegal immigrants at the U.S border (which has been going on for many years prior to Trump). Jews were hunted, transported like animals,
murdered in the most horrific ways, and imprisoned in some of the worst conditions ever known to man. The kind of gross and exaggerated comparison in this book belittles the seriousness and gravity of the holocaust- it's a sick sort of flippancy that seems prevalent in politics today. I say this as someone who didn't vote for Trump and as someone who has never been a fan of his rhetoric and behavior. The situation at our border is complicated (Has the author looked into the sex trafficking of children that happens at the border by people trying to cross with them? Detaining these people actually serves to protect these children as the people they're traveling with are vetted.) and there are many difficult issues to address in the situation. There are no easy answers and each side has some valid points. But the comparison that shows up in this book and the underhanded way it's presented paints a false and biased picture with a single, inflammatory agenda. Please, people! Please stop comparing the holocaust to every issue that comes across as an injustice in your limited, narrow view of the world. This could have been a good book but now I'm going to have to return it. I would have found the last part of the book much more poignant had the author actually used a valid comparison, like, say, the slaughter of thousands of Yazidis in the middle east and their displacement as they fled for their lives. . . But the author's point fell flat. Such a shame.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Zaphead

Disrespectful to Young Readers

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2020

Most of the story was well-constructed, but from the beginning, I wondered whether the author was interested in telling a story or leading readers to see things her way. And the ending explained it all. Adults have the ability to think critically about events and ideas, but elementary school children are in the early phases of cognitive development. To paint a terrifying picture of Nazi Germany in World War II (which was terrifying, indeed) and then to compare it to modern America is incredibly disingenuous and harmful to children. I would have hoped the author would have more respect for her young audience.

6 people found this helpful

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J. silverman

Fine story and graphics, right up until the end.

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

Story was ruined at the end by the cheap political shot, totally unnecessary and wildly inaccurate...comparing people problems at US border with onset of Nazi tretament of "undesirables".

6 people found this helpful

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