The Bird Within Me

This is a piece of art! Beautiful story and pictures. It gives such a joy to look, feel and read it. Well done Book Island!

This is an absolutely stunning book that educates, celebrates and illuminates readers about the life of a young Swedish artist. I studied this book with a group of 12 year olds as part of the Greenaway Award Shadowing scheme and it was their favourite book from the selection. They particularly loved the way that the artist's hands are depicted in the illustrations and how the young Berta finds an escape through art. After reading the book we researched more about Berta Hansson's life and work as none of us had heard of her before.

This is such a devastatingly beautiful book! Grief, thwarted ambition, family obligations and incredible art-work all in one.

This beautifully illustrated and translated picture book is a wonderful story told from the perspective of Bertha and how she felt, trapped on the farm, finding pleasure in her art. Berta shares her art with her mum in the hope it will make her better. When her mother dies, we see the local doctor, who also loves art, encouraging her to go to study art but this takes time for her father to agree as she is not only needed on the farm but living in an era when education was not seen as a priority for girls.
This is a story inspired by the paintings, letters and diaries of the Swedish artist Berta Hansson (1910 –1994) and has a wonderfully satisfying afterword and mini biography at the end by Alexandra Sundqvist telling us the real-life story about Berta Hansson to enable us to see the links to what really happened to her. Book Island have also taken this one step further with an extra note to tell us a little bit more about the artist’s life after she left the farm. It is both moving and inspiring to find out that Berta went on to be an artist and lived a wonderful creative life.
The illustrations are stunning and they give the book the feeling of an art gallery of paintings throughout as well as bringing the narrative into colour and depicting the emotions that Berta has throughout the story. The Bird Within Me is an outstanding story with themes of family, responsibilities and following your dreams.

This is the touching early life story of the Swedish artist Berta Hansson (1910-1994). Her family farm in Sweden traps both Berta and her art, particularly after the death of her mother from TB. It is lovely that the ‘bird within’ is released by the end of the book and Berta gains the freedom she craves. The afterword is both sad and inspirational. This is a beautiful book, economical with words in order that the illustrations tell the story. Warmly recommended to readers aged 9-12.