Bird/Dog

What does home mean to you?

Is it a place where you are safe?
The freedom to go wherever you please?
Or the people who understand you?

High above, Bird roams the open sky but dreams of having a home. Down below, Dog has a family and a home, yet longs to discover life beyond the fence. When their separate adventures lead them away from everything familiar, both must navigate uncertainty, new relationships and the surprising ways in which friendship can appear.

Told through two very different perspectives, Bird/Dog is a warm and hopeful story about freedom, belonging, individuality and finding your place in the world.

Why should a child read this book?

Because it explores questions that become increasingly important as children grow:

Where do I belong? Who am I becoming? Can I care for someone whose experiences are different from mine?

Bird and Dog may come from entirely different worlds, but both are searching for something they feel is missing. Their journeys encourage young readers to:

• understand that freedom and security can mean different things to different people,
• look beyond appearances and recognise shared emotions,
• appreciate friendships that cross differences,
• and discover that home is not always a physical place. Sometimes, home is people.

The story celebrates individuality while gently helping readers explore the emotional complexities of friendship, family and belonging.

What are the learnings?

Social-emotional understanding

Recognising emotions such as loneliness, uncertainty, fear, curiosity and hope.

Understanding that people can feel grateful for what they have while still longing for something different.

Exploring how relationships can offer comfort, courage and a sense of belonging.

Empathy and perspective

Seeing the world through two contrasting points of view.

Understanding that the same idea, such as “home” or “freedom”, may carry different meanings for different individuals.

Learning to listen without assuming that everyone wants or needs the same things.

Identity and individuality

Developing the confidence to follow one’s own path.

Recognising that growing up often involves questioning familiar ideas and discovering what truly matters.

Understanding that belonging does not require giving up the qualities that make us different.

Thinking and language skills

Comparing Bird’s and Dog’s experiences, choices and motivations.

Examining cause and effect: how does each decision change the characters’ journeys?

Discussing symbolism and larger ideas such as flight, fences, freedom and home.

How to use this book?

Reading and discussion prompts

• “Why does Bird want a home when she already has the freedom of the sky?”
• “Why does Dog long for freedom even though he has a family?”
• “Do Bird and Dog want opposite things, or are they searching for something similar?”
• “Can a person feel lonely even when surrounded by others?”
• “What makes someone, or somewhere, feel like home?”

Perspective activity

Choose one event from the story and retell it twice: once from Bird’s point of view and once from Dog’s.

Discuss how the details, emotions and interpretation change depending on who is telling the story.

Creative writing activity

Complete one of these prompts:

“Home is…”
“Freedom feels like…”
“I knew I belonged when…”
“An unexpected friend once taught me…”

Compare and connect

Create two circles labelled Bird and Dog. Write their differences in the separate sections and their shared feelings or desires in the overlapping space.

This helps readers see that even very different individuals may carry remarkably similar hopes.

Friendship reflection

Invite readers to think about a friendship that surprised them. What brought the two people together? What did they learn from each other?

Bird/Dog opens a gentle doorway into meaningful conversations about independence, connection and the wonderfully complicated question of where we belong.