Nerdy Birdy Tweets by Aaron Reynolds (review)

Nerdy Birdy loves his electronics; his best friend, Vulture, is more of a wings-on kind of gal. It's never been much of a problem until Nerdy Birdie discovers the app Tweetster, with a whole community of friends, game players, and picture swappers ready to be cultivated. Vulture doesn't see the charm but goes along with it, even signing up herself. When Nerdy Birdy posts a picture of Vulture enjoying her scavenged lunch, though, the trolls come out and the friendship goes dark. Nerdy Birdy's online friends are more interested in mocking than helping him mend the relationship, and it takes determined searching, a major apology, and a spirit of compromise to restore amity. Davies' line and watercolor cartoons make the most of the odd couple pals, accentuating NB's oversized round specs and Vulture's lanky body and coyly curled eyelashes. However, they can't fully mitigate the heavy-handedness of the message-driven text and the chicken-soupy moralizing: "One real live you is worth a thousand Tweetster friends." This is too young for kids wrangling their first social media accounts and too old for kids whose online life is still some years in the future. It may be useful, though, for some savvy young listeners to turn against their overconnected parents and demand a little face time.