The Mulberry Bird. Anne Braff Brodzinsky

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      The

      Mulberry

      Bird

      For Shoshanah

      Anne Braff Brodzinsky, PhD

      Illustrated by Angela Marchetti

      The

      Mulberry

      Bird

      An Adoption Story

      Jessica Kingsley Publishers

      London and Philadelphia

      First published in 1986 by Perspectives Press; revised edition published in 1996 by Perspectives Press

      This edition published in 2013

      by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

      73 Collier Street

      London N1 9BE, UK

      and

      400 Market Street, Suite 400

      Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

       www.jkp.com

      Copyright © Anne Braff Brodzinsky 1986, 1996

      Illustrations copyright © Angela Marchetti 2012

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

      Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

      Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

      A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      ISBN 978 1 84905 933 6

      eISBN 978 0 85700 720 9

      This is the story of a mother bird who lived in a mulberry tree long ago. Although small and young, she was a strong little bird. Her short body feathers were greyish yellow; her longer wing feathers were marked with black and white.

      In springtime, in the cool hours before sunrise, she loved to fly in great swooping patterns around the mulberry tree. Her special song could be heard through the singing of all the other birds.

      “Per-chic-o-ree,

      per-chic-o-ree.”

      7

      As the spring days grew longer, her body grew heavier, and she knew that it was time to prepare for a baby bird.

      She built her nest of twigs and straw on the middle branches of the huge mulberry tree. Inside the nest, which was lined with soft feathers pulled from her body, she laid one lovely, pale blue egg. She knew that the baby bird inside the egg needed the heat of her body next to him in order to grow. She was pleased with the egg and admired it for a moment before lowering her warm breast into the nest to protect it.

      When the right number of days had passed, she felt the egg move slightly. As she rose from the nest she heard a scratching sound from inside the egg. Soon the scratching became a tap-tap tapping, and suddenly the shell cracked!

      First the baby bird’s beak appeared, then his sweet little pink-feathered body stretched the crack wider and wider, until finally he tumbled out, and the shell fell away.

      8

      He looked a little surprised at first, but soon began to chirp, hoping that his mother would know that he was hungry.

      Mother Bird flew in a circle around the mulberry tree, watching for enemies and looking for food. She brought only the fattest beetles and the juiciest berries to feed her baby. She screeched and flapped her wings furiously whenever unfriendly birds came too close to the nest. Taking care of a baby was a little harder than she had thought it would be.

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