Conference of the Birds

July 16, 2012
Lumbard’s debut picture book retells for a young audience the most famous work by the 12th-century Persian poet Farid al-Din Attar about a pilgrimage taken by birds to meet “King Simorgh the Wise.” Sorrowing because they lack kingly guidance, the birds gather together, receive help from the inspired hoopoe, and depart on their quest. Along the way, individual birds confront spiritual obstacles: the parrot’s heavy jewelry weighs her down; the finch fears the storm; the hawk, seeking to arrive first, becomes lost. Prose narration alternates with the hoopoe’s rhymed speeches of encouragement, which contain a recurring refrain: “So do not let this impatience/ Destroy this golden chance./ Release its hold upon you now,/ And to your King advance!” Set against white full-spread backdrops, red-bordered gilt frames decorated with small birds contain Demi’s uncluttered paintings featuring brightly colored, meticulously rendered birds against pale or royal blue watercolor washes. A foreword by scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr provides insight into Sufi poetry and bird symbolism in diverse cultures. Both prose and illustrations combine simplicity and elegance, ably rendering this classic tale for a new generation. Ages 4–8.

August 1, 2012
This laudable attempt to retell the gist of a 12th-century poem of over 4,000 verses may be of interest to religious educators and parents who want to expose young people to varied spiritual values. Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr has been discussed throughout the centuries, and children and adults in Iran and other Muslim countries have been exposed to its ideas in many different versions. Here, the foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr provides background information on the poem, with its Sufi, Islamic and Zoroastrian elements. In the body of the text, rhyming couplets alternate with prose that summarizes the action cut from the original as the birds take on human personality traits. The hoopoe, resplendent in her red head feathers with black tips undertakes the role of leader and urges the birds to travel together to find their king. Along the way, different birds despair and try to leave the pilgrimage, but they find the strength to continue as the hoopoe helps each one to overcome its particular limitations. The duck is lazy, the parrot has too much finery weighing her down, and the finch is fearful, but all stay faithful to the search, which ultimately leads to great enlightenment. Demi's delicate watercolor-and-mixed-media illustrations, each bordered with a frieze of multiple bird images in every position of flight, suit the text admirably. Soaring in some aspects, but limited in appeal. (Religious poetry. 8-12)

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November 1, 2012

Gr 4-6-Lumbard presents a greatly condensed version of this masterpiece of Sufi poetry and mystical literature. A full-page foreword explains that the original poem, by renowned 12th-century Persian poet Farid al-Din Attar, contains more than 4000 verses written in rhyming couplets. Lumbard's retelling is part narration, part poetry. The religiosity of the story is evident from the beginning. In it, the hoopoe, described as a bird with "a sacred prayer inscribed upon her beak," urges a large gathering of birds to follow her on the lengthy journey to find their King, Simorgh the Wise. Some birds want to leave the group-one is too tired; another too lazy; a third scared of a brewing storm. The hoopoe coaxes them on. Just 30 birds reach the King's sacred mountain, only to discover that He "is not an earthly thing, /[but] the King of all the heavens/and all found here below." The hoopoe speaks of weakness inside each individual, great rewards that result from hardships, and the need to be pure-hearted and free of sin. Each of Demi's golden-bordered paintings features a central story-related illustration surrounded by many tiny likenesses of one or more avian species in flight. Peter Sis's lengthier, elegantly formatted, more sophisticated and mystical pictorial version of The Conference of the Birds (Penguin, 2011) has greatly condensed text, but contains additional sections of the original mystical tale and the conclusion that Simorgh resides in every creature-that Attar's story is the story of humanity.Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

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