Jack and Jim

My son loves this book. It is a nice way to show that there are benefits to our differences and that each of us has special qualities or skills that not everybody else has. It also sets an example of real friendship in spite of what the crowd says and does.

Jack the Blackbird and Jim the Seagull are friends. They meet on a beach that is probably Fire Island. They stay up and talk all night, discovering they are friends. Jim then invites Jack to visit him and they go sight seeing. They have a wonderful time until Jim's bigoted friends reject Jack because he is a blackbird. Jack knows Jim is really his friend when Jim tells the bigot birds that if they don't accept Jack, then they can just go fly away. In time, the bigot birds have a change of heart once they get to know Jack. They also know Jim is not a bigot and he will not support any mistreatment of his friend Jack. What a nice story about loving acceptance. It teaches about unconditional love. Whether or not the birds are partners is not important. The message of acceptance and unconditional love is.

This book is always lumped with books dealing with homosexuality, which it doesn't! It is all about acceptance, and in reading this book to my students, they picked up more on the difference between white birds (seagulls) not accepting black birds (crows). It led to a great discussion on people of color and individual differences. It does show two male birds together, but not in anything more than friendship... So read into it what you want, but the kids just didn't see that.

Jack and Jim charmingly tells the story of Jack, a blackbird, who comes to befriend a seagull named Jim. They meet on the beach (Fire Island?) and spend the night together, talking. The next morning, Jim takes Jack to his hometown, where Jim shows Jack the sights with his arm around his shoulder. After an exhasuting day, they spend the night together again. The next day, Jim's seagull friends reject Jack because he looks so different. Jack is thrilled when Jim tells him that if his neighbors can't accept Jack, then he won't be friends with them anymore. Later, Jack winds up winning Jim's friends over, and the formerly-nasty seagulls come to accept and value Jack. This is a sweet book about learning to respect diversity and to follow your heart. When I read the book to my three year old, he asked "Are they (Jack and Jim) partners?" Improbably, yes.

This book has become one of my daughter's favorite books! It's illustrations, along with the message keep her attention. The story is about two friends who experience uncomfortable feelings from a seagull colony because one (Jack) is a black bird and the other (Jim) is a seagull. I picked this up from the local library, but will purchase it for my daughter's permanent collection.