The True Story of Stellina
Read The True Story of Stellina Online
Authors: Matteo Pericoli
The author would like to thank
Beverly Horowitz, Melissa Nelson, and Joan Slattery
for their enthusiasm.
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2006 by Matteo Pericoli
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States of America by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random
House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by
Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House Companies.
Distributed by Random House LLC, New York.
KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pericoli, Matteo.
The true story of Stellina / Matteo Pericoli.
p. cm.
Trade paperback ISBN 978-0-375-83273-4 — eBook ISBN 978-0-307-98320-6
1. Wild birds as pets—New York (State)—New York—Biography—Juvenile literature.
2. Pericoli, Matteo—Homes and haunts—New York (State)—New York—Juvenile literature.
3. Pericoli, Holly—Homes and haunts—New York (State)—New York—Juvenile literature.
I. Title.
SF462.5.P47 2006
636.6′862—dc22
2004061503
v3.1
This is the true story of Stellina.
Stellina was a bird:
“CHEEP.”
A very little bird:
“
CHEEP!
”
Holly, my wife,
once saw a very little bird
on the corner of
46th and Third.
In Manhattan.
Cars were rushing by,
ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!
Cars are loud in the city.
But “CHEEP,” Holly heard.
Holly, my wife, has very good ears.
Could you also have heard
“CHEEP”
on the corner of
46th and Third,
in the middle of the day,
while cars were rushing by?
ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!
That’s not easy to hear.
But, as I was saying,
“CHEEP,” she heard all of a sudden.
A bird, a very little bird,
had fallen from her nest.
Her nest must have been
(and this is what we think)
inside a traffic-light post.
High, high above
the corner of
46th and Third.
Holly, my wife,
waited and waited.
And waited and waited.
She hoped, she told me,
that the very little bird’s mother,
“CHEEP,”
would soon return
to take her home,
back to her nest.
But her mother didn’t return.
Who knows why she didn’t,
or where she went.
So Stellina,
“CHEEP,”
stood out there for a while,
not knowing what to do,
not knowing what to say
(except, of course:
“CHEEP”),