Review Detail

Azizi lives in a little house with an orange tree. He doesn't like to think of the portraits of Tih and Reni, the scowling rulers who demand increasing tribute from the people, and as their spirits shrink so too do they diminish in size, until Azizi and the others are no bigger than seeds. But when a captive blue bird slips free, with Azizi's aid, they conquer the tyrants' greed and set the people free.

In the way of great fables, the tale of Azizi and the little blue bird memorializes real world events and struggles with ordinary characters and a dash of the fantastic. For example, through extorting the people, the tyrants literally swell into giants, a vivid depiction of the seemingly insurmountable odds the ordinary people feel when living under an oppressive regime. Tyrants grow beyond ordinary men, and the people shrink to be less than the dirt beneath their feet, even as they ceaselessly toil to survive. But at the end of the day, the tyrants are only as big as their ambition, and sometimes a single act of courage can be the snowball that starts an avalanche of revolt.

I enjoyed the feel of this modern fairytale and the portrayal of a perhaps lesser-known modern moment in history, the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia. Vibrant illustrations evoke a desert kingdom both rich and lush, rugged and fantastic, and although the story is light on a personal narrative (Azizi immediately helps the bird without question, without a particular struggle), it captures the desperate hope of a people overthrowing oppression and invites the reader to learn more.