TY - BOOK AU - Neale,Emma TI - Billy bird SN - 9780143770053 U1 - NZ823.2 22 KW - Family KW - Fiction KW - Parenthood KW - New Zealand fiction KW - 21st century N2 - "Moving, insightful, lyrical and also at times very funny, this novel is a supple, disarmingly frank exploration of parenthood"--Publisher information. 'Liam and Iris have one son: Billy, a bright ‘toddler puddling about like a penguin, leaving surrealist art installations all over the house— a tiny cow in a teapot in a hat on the doorstep, of course! A stuffed crocodile in a silk camisole perched beside a woollen chick in a beanie on the bread-bin, why not!’ Just as they are despairing about being able to conceive another child, Jason comes into their family. He arrives under fraught circumstances, but might just make a perfect sibling for Billy. Jason is a ‘ lovely, poor, sad, unfortunate, ordinary, annoying, delightful nuisance of a ratbag of a hoot of a kid ’ and the boys grow close over the ensuing years. But after a terrible accident, Billy turns into a bird. He utterly believes it: and as his behaviour becomes increasingly worrying, Liam and Iris must find a way to stop their family flying apart.' - back cover ER -