It's an ill wind that blows no good! 'Does that bird have an umbrella stuck up its butt - surely not, must be part of its delightful display ?!' Have you ever tried to cover something up, or to make something look much better than it actually is ? We've all done it ! Meet some characters who try to try to paint a very rosy picture while one plucky youngster helps to cure their embarrassment ! Have a go at the activities at the the end !

“I intend to stand firm and let the peacocks multiply, for I am sure that, in the end, the last word will be theirs.” —Flannery O’Connor When she was young, the writer Flannery O’Connor was captivated by the chickens in her yard. She’d watch their wings flap, their beaks peck, and their eyes glint. At age six, her life was forever changed when she and a chicken she had been training to walk forwards and backwards were featured in the Pathé News, and she realized that people want to see what is odd and strange in life. But while she loved birds of all varieties and kept several species around the house, it was the peacocks that came to dominate her life. Written by Amy Alznauer with devotional attention to all things odd and illustrated in radiant paint by Ping Zhu, The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor explores the beginnings of one author’s lifelong obsession. Amy Alznauer lives in Chicago with her husband, two children, a dog, a parakeet, sometimes chicks, and a part-time fish, but, as of today, no elephants or peacocks. Ping Zhu is a freelance illustrator who has worked with clients big and small, won some awards based on the work she did for aforementioned clients, attracted new clients with shiny awards, and is hoping to maintain her livelihood in Brooklyn by repeating that cycle.

The six volumes of the Ysstrhm series are works of high fantasy and the world that they presuppose is not ours. Its a world that includes magic, distinctive customs, and flora and fauna that resemble ours only in respect to the presence of humans, cats, canines, and bees. There are, for example, no horses that may be ridden into battle. But there are battles in the story that is told, as well as suspense, mystery, quests, losses, love, and sex. In the present volume the maps and explanatory appendices that were scattered among the six volumes are gathered together with some revisions and a few items of additional material. It provides doors into the unique world of Ysstrhm.