Crumbs by Phil Cummings

Ella sits at the table while her father queues to buy their lunch.

She watches a small bird hopping around the other people in the line. It has only one leg but hops onto the chair at Ella’s table. She has nothing to give. She spies a man with a backpack and grizzled hair and beard. He bows his head asking people in the line for a few coins. Each turns him away. Like the bird, he is shoo-ed, or told to go away or he is treated as if he is not there, people hurrying past. He sits down a little way from them all, and the bird totters over to him. He rummages around in his pockets and finds a bag, which he shakes out for the bird. With the crumbs on his hand, he holds it out for the bird and it hops onto his hand to eat.

Ella and her father watch and then walk over to the man and invite him to share their lunch.

A lovely story reprising ideas of kindness and sharing will give many children cause to stop and think about the disparity in our society. The image of the bird, disabled and hungry, brings the reader to a feeling of sympathy which they will then endow upon the  man.  Cummings’ description of the man brings him into sharp focus with the readers, who must have seen homeless people in their streets. Discarded, ignored and without a voice, Cummings shows the basic thing we can all do. The man has a prickle-bush beard and hair, carries his life on his back, his shoulder slumped like the broken wings of a storm-weary bird.

Devries' illustrations wonderfully match the image of the homeless man with his unkempt beard and hair, scruffy clothes, an inadequate bag on his back, sitting away from the crowd of well heeled people who rejected him. The close ups of the man are beautifully imagined. Unlaced shoes, torn knees of his jeans, an umbrella on his back which you know has missing spokes, all underline the image shown through the words.

Readers will feel for the man and suggest what they can do to help the homeless in their orbit. They will peer at the setting of the story, and note touches such as the broken umbrella, the scarf at the man’s neck, the unlaced shoes and frayed backpack.

Kindness and a caring for others prompts the man and his daughter to share their lunch with the homeless man.

Themes: Kindness, Sharing, Good Samaritan, Homelessness, Father and daughter.

Fran Knight