The Hunt for the Nightingale

This is a wonderful read and I highly recommend this. This is a story about Jasper and the death of his sister, Rosie. It has beautiful illustrations of birds and the imagery and descriptions throughout are brilliant. This would be a very poignant and helpful book for children who are struggling with grief. And adults too.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

Physically and emotionally, a beautiful book. This has us smiling and crying at a young boys emotional journey into nature. Ultimately a book about the healing properties of setting out into the natural world. Very life affirming , we loved it.

I read this book in one sitting and didn't want to put it down once.
An absolutely beautiful tale of a little boy trying to come to terms the loss of his big sister, who was his whole world.
Jasper is obsessed with birds, something that he and his sister shared. She would take him on lots of adventures to find birds and together they wrote a book on bird facts and the times they had seen the birds. So birds play a big part in this story, each chapter starting with a short bird fact, which was really lovely.
Jasper's parents were distant before their daughters death, working all the time to keep the family afloat with their new business, and not understanding their children's love for birds. So when their daughter dies, they switch their attention to planning her funeral, and once again, Jasper is left alone and ignored. He doesn't understand that his sister is dead, or at least, doesn't want to admit it. He goes looking for her and the missing nightingale, which usually arrived in their garden at this time of year, but is so far missing. His sister, before she dies, makes a joke about the bird being at the motorway service station some way away. so he decides to go looking for it, thinking his sister would be there too.
along the way, he meets lots of lovely people who he helps find their lost things, working on his bravery, emotions and strength the whole time.
I dont want to spoil the story, as it's so well written and definitely worth a read.
I loved the descriptions, the emotional depth, the understanding of people with panic attacks and other mental issues and they were treated with such respect.
i also loved that although Jasper was constantly meeting strangers on his trip, and he had technically run away from home, this was never glorified as a great thing for kids to do. It was instead talked about as something that Jasper knew he shouldn't have done, felt awful about, knew he shouldn't be talking to strangers, had to cross roads safely etc. and this was reiterated at the end of the book as well. (I've read other childrens books where kids run away, and it's made out to be super fun and exciting, and always worried me that kids would try and copy the characters).
I have to say that i cried a lot, especially towards the end of the book, and i dont often cry when reading books (it's happened maybe 6 other times in my life), but the emotion and realness of the story and characters was so strong, that i just couldn't stop myself.
so obviously, i really recommend this book. It was beautiful from start to finish.

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'The Hunt for the Nightingale'.

This is a beautifully written and illustrated book. It deals with loss and grief so may be particularly meaningful for children (and adults) who have experienced the death of a loved one or friend but may not be suitable for some sensitive children who worry about death The bird facts are fascinating and tie the story together well and the characters that Jasper meets have been well chosen.