Feathered Friend! Hello, Crow! by Candace Savage

Franny sat on her favorite rock and started to eat her lunch.

Crumbs went flying, but... she was too busy watching the big black bird coming toward her. He looked at the crumbs...

Closer he hopped. "Hello, Crow," she whispered. "I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."

The crow fixed one round eye as Franny and gave her a little nod.

Back home Franny told her dad about her friend, the big beautiful bird who shared her lunch,

Dad called her story "featherbrained!"

"You know as well as I do that you can't have a crow for friend."

But the next day Franny makes a lunch with an extra sandwich for the crow. And just as she is about to give up, he appears and bows to her.

From then on, every day was full of surprises.

Her friend the crow brings her gifts every day--an interesting rock, a red bead, a green pebble, and a tiny silver heart--leaving them on Franny's favorite rock. But when she tells her dad, he scoffs at the idea that she can be friends with a a crow.

"I don't know where you got all this trash," he says, "but this silliness must stop."

But when Franny takes Dad to the rock, the crow comes and perches on her head, giving her dad a beady eye, and happily in Candace Savage's Hello, Crow (Greystone Kids, 2019), Dad apologizes and admits that he has to appreciate his smart little featherhead and her friend the crow. Describing the sort of behavior and intelligence that animal behaviorists have observed in crows, Candace Savage celebrates an intriguing cross-species friendship, illustrated appealingly in Chelsea O'Byrne' artwork.

Says Kirkus, "A gift for the nature shelf."