Birdie Halleluyah!

Judith Kerr OBE was born in Berlin. Her family left Germany in 1933 to escape the rising Nazi party, and came to England. She studied at the Central School of Art and later worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC. Judith married the celebrated screenwriter Nigel Kneale in 1954. She left the BBC to look after their two children, who inspired her first picture book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Published in 1968 and never out of print in the fifty years since, it has become a much-loved classic and perennial bestseller. Judith was awarded the Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and in 2019 was named Illustrator of the Year at the British Book Awards. Judith died in May 2019 at the age of 95, and her stories continue to entertain and delight generations of children.

Birdie is the guardian angel, secret friend and conscience of a young boy who loves football. When on duty, Birdie is so often distracted by his own innocent pleasures that small incidents mount up like the sticking plasters on the boy’s body, but Birdie swoops to the rescue when the child’s obsession with his football leads him into real danger.The artwork is beautiful, achieved with such modest means: pencils, crayons, sepia ink, and finest liquid gold pen line. The image of the guardian angel is one of ethereal solidity: immense hands and feet, skin pale as marble, seraphic smile, long fair hair. In Birdie Halleluyah the words provide a simple framework upon which the story grows through the images. (TES - 30/10/98) -