Elsie's Bird is a story that puts you in the shoes of a young girl during the time of expansion in the United States. Elsie has grown up in Boston and loved the sound of the harbor and the songs she sang in church. She played outside in the cobblestone streets skipping rope with her friends all day long. When her mother dies he father becomes sad. He longs for some happiness away from the place that now held sad memories as well. He decides to move the family out west to Nebraska. Elsie is sad to leave but hides it from her father. She is given a canary that she names "Timmy Tune" to bring with her. For a while when she gets there, Elsie refuses to leave the house. She sings with Timmy all day long for company and cries herself to sleep at night. One day, Timmy gets out of his cage and flies away. Elsie lunges after him and into the tall grass, screaming his name. It is on this day, that she finally hears the sounds of the prairie and begins to feel at home.
This would be a great social studies read aloud for a class studying the expansion. It would be a great activity to read this book and have children in class think about how they would react if they were told to move out west. It was a big change for people who lived in the city to move to the country. This could be a springboard to help children put themselves in the shoes of people from the time of the expansion.
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