Found You

Sami is lonely. Having come from a far-away country where he had many friends, he finds himself in a new place where he knows no one. Not only that, but the people he meets don’t seem friendly. He teaches himself how to juggle because he can do that by himself. Mum is concerned, but in the park one day a little bird bumps into him accidentally-on-purpose, and they strike up a friendship of sorts. The little bird has lost her friends and wants Sami to help her find them. In the process, he meets several of the people that had seemed unfriendly before and discovers them to be smiley and quite different. Ultimately, he meets a girl from his school who asks him to play with her, and we know he is on his way to feeling more at home. The bird, whose job it is to find lonely people and help them make friends, is the symbol of how we should all treat strangers in our midst. Gentle illustrations of the strangeness of the new and reflecting how it feels to be on one’s on in an unknown society, are poignant without being the least bit maudlin. A lovely book.