Breakfast with the Birds

By Jack G Hyman

Molly wasnt looking to have a pet. She prefers climbing trees, eating peanut butter, playing with her dolls, and having breakfast with the birds. But when her little brother thinks he hears a monster in the backyard, everything changesincluding friendships. Now, Mollys adventure with an avian friend leads not only to some discoveries about herself but also to standing in the kitchen sink, having a tea party in a tree house, holding a live bird in her hands, singing into a walkie-talkie, and eating Oatmeal Mollerino. She even manages to finally decide on her absolutely, positively most favorite color in the whole wide worldthanks to her special new friend.

Breakfast With The Birds is a delight! Long before I became a professional writer myself, I had a career in childrens book publishing. But I must admit I would never be able to write for kids with the skill that Jack G Hyman so clearly possesses. This is an utterly charming read that children will enjoy experiencing and learning from, over and over. Highly recommended!
-Mike Greenly, Award-winning Lyricist, Author, Journalist, Speechwriter

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781452584546

Jack G Hyman

JACK G HYMAN is a playwright, director, actor and teacher who has written for stage, television, and magazines. He has been a writer/performer for the long-running PBS children’s show, Bloopy’s Buddies, a freelance associate producer at ESPN, and a produced playwright on the New York stage. He is currently working on a new musical and two novels, Lady E and Muscovado (for middle grade). A former gymnast, Jack continues to teach gymnastics in his spare time. He is a graduate of Emerson College and a native Texan, now living in New York City—where he still refuses to fully grow up!

Book preview

Chapter 1

My name is Molly, and I love birds. I also love Sunday mornings. And I totally love peanut butter for breakfast. On school days, I spread it on toast, but on Sundays I put it on plain bread because I’m in much too big a hurry to wait for the toaster to pop up. That’s because I get up really, really early on Sundays so I can do my most favorite thing in the whole world. I have breakfast with the birds.

I’ve been doing it for so long that Mom and Dad sometimes call me Molly Sunday.

I’m the only one in my house who gets up early on Sunday. Mom and Dad don’t get up early because they work all week and every other Saturday. On Sundays they like to sleep late. My little brother doesn’t get up early because he’s only six and he hates to wake up anytime. Really! Dad has to wake him three or four times just to get him out of bed for breakfast. So he’ll never get up early.

My brother’s name is Fred, but I call him Ferd. Sometimes I say it like this: Hi, Ferrrrrd, or Good morning, Ferrrrrd, or Get out of my room, Ferrrrrd. He gets mad at me for saying his name like that. I think that’s why he’s always getting into my stuff and sneaking into my room to try to scare me. Well, he can’t because I’m almost nine years old and I don’t get scared. So there.

Mom likes birds as much as I do. She tells Ferd and me which birds are which. Like the nuthatch. Is that a funny name for a bird or what? And the cowbird. That’s Ferd’s favorite because he thinks that it will go moo one day. Sometimes when Mom spots a cowbird, she tells me first so I can run upstairs and tell Ferd that there’s a cow in our backyard. He knows what I mean and runs down to hear if the bird is mooing. It never does.

I like when Mom teaches us about all the different birds that come to our house. She told us which birds stay around all winter, like the cardinals, and which ones go away and come back in the spring, like the robins. She’s even teaching us how to tell the boy birds from the girl birds.

Dad knows as much about animals as Mom because both of them are veterinarians. That means they’re animal doctors. Pretty cool!

Mom said that we get a lot of birds because we live close to the water. The place where we live is called Orient Point. It’s in New York, and it’s super cool because there’s a state park nearby and a lighthouse and tons of different animals and birds.

The best part about Mom and Dad being veterinarians is that Ferd and I get to see lots of animals. We even get to help feed some of them. And we get new ones all the time.

But the best thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life happened on a Saturday a few weeks ago. Ferd was playing in the tree house that Dad built for him in a cherry tree. Mom and Dad were at their veterinary clinic, and I was in the kitchen. Suddenly Ferd came running into the house, screaming, There’s a monster on top of my tree house! There’s a monster on top of my tree house!

What does it look like? I asked.

I don’t know, Ferd said.

Then how do you know it’s a monster?

Because it’s making funny noises and scratching and thumping on the roof.

Maybe it’s a rabbit.

Rabbits can’t climb trees, Molly.

Well, maybe it’s a lizard.

Lizards don’t make funny noises, Molly.

Okay, I’ll go look at it.

Oh no you won’t! Ferd screamed. You’re not allowed in my tree house. You’re a girl. I’ll go tell Dad.

Ferd won’t let me come up into his tree house. He says that it’s just for him and his friends and that girls aren’t allowed. Whenever he tells me that, I look right at him and tell him that I don’t care about his silly tree house because I’ve got a super cool dollhouse and he can’t play with it because boys aren’t allowed. So there.

Well, what are you waiting for, Ferrrrrd? I said. Go tell Dad.

I waited until he ran out of the kitchen. As soon as he was gone, I raced outside and climbed as fast as I could up above the tree house.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. Something was moving around and making funny sounds, just like Ferd had said. And even though I thought it would have been cool to see some kind of monster, it wasn’t anything like that. It was a bright red cardinal. I knew something was wrong with it, so I started yelling that there was a sick bird on the tree house roof. I pushed some leaves out of my way to yell again, but Ferd was already running toward me. And boy was he mad.

What are you doing in my tree house? You’re not allowed in my tree house. Get out of my tree house.

I’m not in your tree house, Ferrrrrd. I’m in the tree. So there! And it’s a bird, Ferd, a cardinal—a boy cardinal. And something’s wrong with him. He can’t fly and he’s flapping only one wing and making funny noises and dragging himself in a circle.

Are you sure?

Well, duh, Ferd. I think I know what a boy cardinal looks like.

Can you get near him? Ferd shouted up.

Yeah, I think so, but I’ll have to go onto the roof of the tree house.

So go, Ferd said.

I hollered, You just told me you don’t want me in your tree house.

You won’t be in my tree house, Mol. You’ll be on it, Ferd hollered back.

I didn’t waste any time because I was afraid that Ferd might change his mind. But as soon as I stepped onto the flat roof, the cardinal got scared. He started flapping his good wing, scratching at the roof, chirping loudly, and spinning around in a circle even faster than before. I was afraid he would fall off of the tree house, so I moved super slowly, trying to get close to him. I reached out to grab him, but he suddenly started to flap again. This time he pulled in his good wing and tried to run from me, chirping even more loudly. Look out, bird! I yelled.

But it was too late. He fell off of the tree house, screeching and flapping as he dropped through the leaves. Oh no! I screamed. Ferd, he fell off of the tree house. He fell off!

He’s okay, Mol. He’s flapping around on the grass. What should I do? Ferd sounded scared.

I hurried across the roof and back onto a tree limb. Then I climbed inside the tree house through one of the big open windows. I found Ferd’s escape rope, yelled Look out below, and pushed the whole pile of rope out of the open space. I climbed down by stepping on the knots in the rope. As I got close to the bottom, I saw Ferd’s scrunched-up face.

I was only inside for a second, Ferd, I said as I jumped down off of the last knot.

What’s wrong with the bird? Ferd asked as we moved closer to see it. I looked at the cardinal, who was struggling in the grass and making weird sounds.

I don’t know. But Mom and Dad will, that’s for sure.

The cardinal was flapping his good wing faster. I knew that I would have to pick him up, and even though I had never held a bird before, I wasn’t scared. I don’t get scared. He kept flapping, but he wasn’t going very far. So I leaned over slowly and very gently put one hand over his flapping wing. The cardinal screeched and I jumped. I wasn’t afraid. I was just being, uh, careful. I reached down, covered his good wing, lifted him up very softly, and started walking fast. Ferd ran beside me.

Is his wing broken? Ferd asked. What if his wing is broken? Can Mom fix it? Will he ever be able to fly again? What if he can’t ever fly again? What will he do, Molly?

Just be quiet, Ferd, I said. We have to get him to the clinic so Mom can examine him. Come on.

Guess how long it took us to get to the clinic?

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Chapter 2

Thirty seconds!

That’s because the clinic is right next to our house. Cool, huh? Dad said he and Mom built it out of an old garage because they liked having their office nearby so they could look in on any animals that were staying there or in case they had any really sick ones. That way they could check on them anytime they wanted, even in the middle of the night.

So I walked as fast as I could all the way to Mom and Dad’s clinic. Mom, Dad! I hollered as I shoved open the door. Just as Ferd and I entered, a small black-and-white dog started yapping and growling at me, and even though I don’t get scared, I jumped and ran to the opposite corner of the room. I’d forgotten that since this was one of the Saturdays when Mom and Dad worked for half a day, there might be people in the waiting room. I didn’t know if the dog was yapping at me or at Ferd or at the cardinal, but it was a good thing the lady with the dog had it on a leash or it might have bitten Ferd or me—or worse, the cardinal. My heart was beating pretty fast, but I wasn’t scared. No way.

Olive, stop that, the lady said, picking up the dog and petting her. But Olive kept barking at me. Just then, Mom and Dad came out of the examination rooms. When Dad saw what was going on, he took the cardinal from me and handed him to Mom, who took him back into one of the rooms. Then Dad grabbed something from a bowl on the counter and went over to the lady and her dog.

Hello, Olive, you wild and crazy pup, Dad said in the slightly baby-talk voice he always uses when he talks to animals. He stood in front of the dog so she couldn’t see me anymore. I bet you’d like a little treat while you’re waiting, hmm? My dad always knows how to make animals happy. I peeked around him and saw Olive open her mouth, stick out her tongue, and start panting.

Molly, Dad said without looking at me, you and Freddie go into the back and tell your mother what happened to the bird. She’ll know what to do. I’m going to take Olive into the other exam room now.

Ferd and I went into the room where Mom was. I could hear Dad apologizing to the woman for me scaring her dog. I could also hear Olive crunching on the doggie treat. I guess she wasn’t mad anymore.

Molly, Freddie, what’s going on? Mom asked.

There was a bird on top of my tree house, Ferd said, speaking very fast. And it was making all kinds of sounds and scratching and flapping and …

Ferd thought it was a monster, I said.

Did not!

Did too, Ferrrrrd. Ferd heard some weird sounds on top of his tree house and came running into the house, and I ran outside and climbed up there and found a boy cardinal who couldn’t fly, and I tried to keep him from flapping so much that he would fall off of the roof, but he just kept flapping and he still fell off of the roof, but he landed in the grass and I brought him here as fast as I could so you could fix him, and now … I’m out of breath.

Can you fix him, Mom? Ferd asked.

Will he be okay? I added. Mom started feeling around different areas of the cardinal’s body. He didn’t seem to like that very much because he started making all those sounds again.

First of all, Mom said, I’m very proud of both of you. You did the right thing. And you may have saved the bird’s life by being so aware and so brave. When a bird can’t fly, it’s very likely that he’ll either be harmed by another animal or starve to death because he can’t get to his food source. Okay now. Let’s see what’s wrong with your friend here.

Can we watch? Ferd asked.

"Of course you can. I can use your