I never thought of Bird as being particularly whiny. He’s certainly melodramatic though. And I don’t think he was milking his friends for attention at all. The BONK was real and it hurt. This story is very much a “true story” and grew from my own observations of children. Kids often forget why they’re unhappy, they get so caught up in the act of crying that they forget what got them going in the first place (especially if they’re really tired). The message in the book is more about the importance of friends. Bird is finally snapped back to reality when he notices that his friends are all miserable now. I considered the idea of Bird going to his mom for help, but decided that that didn’t make for a very interesting story (ie: no conflict). This way Bird ends up fixing the problem himself by helping his friends. And this way there was a lot of opportunity to indulge Bird’s big dramatic streak! He’s a lot of fun write.

And that’s my two cents. Thanks so much for posting a review though. The art in this book was a lot of fun to make. I loved drawing all those crazy flowers.