Publication
Imprint: New York : Penguin Press, 2011. Context: Inspired by the twelfth century Persian poem Conference of the Birds by Farīd al-Dīn ʻAṭṭār. Responsibility: Peter Sis. OCLC Number: 757928122. Physical: Text : 1 volume : unpaged (approx 160) : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 26 cm.
Call number
Graphic / Sis
ISBN
9780143124245
Collections
CSS Library Notes
Named Person: Farīd al-Dīn ʻAṭṭār ; Farid Ud-Din Attar .
Named Work: Conference of the Birds ;
Description: Celebrated children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís creates his first book for adults, a beautiful and uplifting adaptation of the classic twelfth-century Sufi epic poem. In The Conference of the Birds Caldecott Honor-winning children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís breathes new life into this foundational Sufi poem, revealing its profound lessons.
Sís's deeply felt adaptation tells the story of an epic flight of birds in search of the true king, Simorgh. Drawn from all species, the band of birds is led by the hoopoe. He promises that the voyage to the mountain of Kaf, where Simorgh lives, will be perilous and many birds resist, afraid of what they might encounter. Others perish during the passage through the seven valleys: quest, love, understanding, friendship, unity, detachment, amazement, and death.
Those that continue reach the mountain to learn that Simorgh the king is, in fact, each of them and all of them. In this lyrical and richly illustrated story of love, faith, and the meaning of it all, Peter Sís shows the pain, and beauty, of the human journey.
FY2018 /
Named Work: Conference of the Birds ;
Description: Celebrated children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís creates his first book for adults, a beautiful and uplifting adaptation of the classic twelfth-century Sufi epic poem. In The Conference of the Birds Caldecott Honor-winning children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís breathes new life into this foundational Sufi poem, revealing its profound lessons.
Sís's deeply felt adaptation tells the story of an epic flight of birds in search of the true king, Simorgh. Drawn from all species, the band of birds is led by the hoopoe. He promises that the voyage to the mountain of Kaf, where Simorgh lives, will be perilous and many birds resist, afraid of what they might encounter. Others perish during the passage through the seven valleys: quest, love, understanding, friendship, unity, detachment, amazement, and death.
Those that continue reach the mountain to learn that Simorgh the king is, in fact, each of them and all of them. In this lyrical and richly illustrated story of love, faith, and the meaning of it all, Peter Sís shows the pain, and beauty, of the human journey.
FY2018 /
Physical description
160 p.; 26 cm
Description
Presents an illustrated tale of thirty birds and their perilous journey through the seven valleys of Quest, Love, Understanding, Detachment, Unity, Amazement, and Death in a quest to find their true king, the Simorgh.
Language
Original language
Farsi/Persian
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member richardderus
Rating: 4* of five
The Book Report: The book description says:
“In The Conference of the Birds Caldecott Honor-winning children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís breathes new life into this foundational Sufi poem, revealing its profound lessons.
Sís's deeply felt adaptation tells the story
Those that continue reach the mountain to learn that Simorgh the king is, in fact, each of them and all of them. In this lyrical and richly illustrated story of love, faith, and the meaning of it all, Peter Sís shows the pain, and beauty, of the human journey.”
My Review: Oh heavy, heavy sigh. I have read a picture book and I have liked it. The floodgates are now open, I fear. I hasten to point out to the picture-book crowd that this is in no way a graphic novel! It is a poem adapted to picture-based storytelling.
The first question most Americans have is, “Whatinahell's a hoopoe?!”
This is a hoopoe.
It was a symbol of virtue in Persia, and its crown of feathers and coloration make it a natural choice for the role of leader-bird. In fact, the hoopoe is also the king of the birds in Aristophanes' play The Birds, to which antique model this poem bears a glancing resemblance. I don't know of any scholarly opinion or research on this observation, but the survival of so much Greek literature in the Islamic east makes me wonder if perhaps Attar, the Sufi poet who created The Parliament of the Birds as a didactic tool for the introduction of his readers to the central tenets of Sufism (the seven valleys the birds fly through are the seven ways man has of knowing god), had encountered and was influenced by Aristophanes' work.
So what are the valleys? What is Sufism? I'll give you the logline on Sufism: Mystical Islam. The valleys, in Sis's work, are:
♪ Quest
♪ Love
♪ Understanding
♪ Detachment
♪ Unity
♪ Amazement
♪ Death
Now I'll level with you here: I totally don't get the Sis versions of the valleys, and what they're supposed to represent in the quest for the True King of the Birds, Simorgh. Not even a little bit. But I've read enough quest-based literature (pretty much all sci fi and definitely all fantasy, and all mystery, fiction is rooted in the quest branch of literature) to get where I'm supposed to go. The Birds meet and decide to seek out a King whose wisdom is guaranted to answer all their questions and thus provide for all their needs. This leads all the numberless birds off to the mountain Kaf, in China (sort of), where Simorgh lives. Through the many many miles of travel, most of the birds die and, in the end, the hoopoe their leader-bird gets them to Kaf, only to discover that the mountain has only a lake, which the thirty birds remaining fly over, and see themselves in its perfect and still waters...
And there it is. “Thirty Birds” in Attar's native language is “si morgh”...SIMORGH! The king of the birds is...the birds themselves!
Why on earth would I, an agnostic and an old curmudgeon, like such a simplistic “the answer was in you all along” tale? Because it's true, and it's always been true, that looking within for guidance and sustenance and a moral compass is the surest way to make the journey to wisdom short and sweet. It's also been taught to us that we must rely on an external god for revelations and meaningful guidance, and Sufism says that god put all that inside us for us to find, so I find this story a useful corrective to the error and misdirection foisted on people by their religions.
Plus the artwork. Are you a person who, on seeing a maze, MUST solve it before moving on with your day? If you are, this book will please you. There are mazes and mazes and mazes. It's a blast. The meditative beauty of some of the images gave me lovely moments of contemplative trance, and at other times made me feel as though I too was flying, and always left me with the softly stroked sensation of having one's hands and face washed by a gentle, loving hand using soothing scented water.
The paper that The Penguin Press' production people chose for the book is weird, in that it's very strongly textured. This flies in the face of established custom, which dictates the use of very smoothly coated heavy paper for illustrated books. That, the received opinion has it, allows the artwork being printed to speak for itself. Sis's artwork in this book, being watercolory and soft-edged in its execution, would look weak and bland on conventional wisdom's paper, whereas on this strongly textured paper, where the whole sheet has visible large and small geometric structure, the contrast of the artwork's lovely swirls and soft curves and unplanned-looking dissolves from one color to another is made a part of the message.
It is a beautiful object, this book. It is a beautiful and simple message, and one I am already in sympathy with, too: Look. Look inside. Let the wind blow through the empty places...they are there for a reason. And, no matter how many say they will come with you, only a few will ever finish the journey. Treasure them, and the path that led you all to the calm, still lake where your reflection is sharp and clear and starkly beautifully you.
The Book Report: The book description says:
“In The Conference of the Birds Caldecott Honor-winning children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís breathes new life into this foundational Sufi poem, revealing its profound lessons.
Sís's deeply felt adaptation tells the story
Show More
of an epic flight of birds in search of the true king, Simorgh. Drawn from all species, the band of birds is led by the hoopoe. He promises that the voyage to the mountain of Kaf, where Simorgh lives, will be perilous and many birds resist, afraid of what they might encounter. Others perish during the passage through the seven valleys: quest, love, understanding, friendship, unity, amazement, and death.Those that continue reach the mountain to learn that Simorgh the king is, in fact, each of them and all of them. In this lyrical and richly illustrated story of love, faith, and the meaning of it all, Peter Sís shows the pain, and beauty, of the human journey.”
My Review: Oh heavy, heavy sigh. I have read a picture book and I have liked it. The floodgates are now open, I fear. I hasten to point out to the picture-book crowd that this is in no way a graphic novel! It is a poem adapted to picture-based storytelling.
The first question most Americans have is, “Whatinahell's a hoopoe?!”
This is a hoopoe.
It was a symbol of virtue in Persia, and its crown of feathers and coloration make it a natural choice for the role of leader-bird. In fact, the hoopoe is also the king of the birds in Aristophanes' play The Birds, to which antique model this poem bears a glancing resemblance. I don't know of any scholarly opinion or research on this observation, but the survival of so much Greek literature in the Islamic east makes me wonder if perhaps Attar, the Sufi poet who created The Parliament of the Birds as a didactic tool for the introduction of his readers to the central tenets of Sufism (the seven valleys the birds fly through are the seven ways man has of knowing god), had encountered and was influenced by Aristophanes' work.
So what are the valleys? What is Sufism? I'll give you the logline on Sufism: Mystical Islam. The valleys, in Sis's work, are:
♪ Quest
♪ Love
♪ Understanding
♪ Detachment
♪ Unity
♪ Amazement
♪ Death
Now I'll level with you here: I totally don't get the Sis versions of the valleys, and what they're supposed to represent in the quest for the True King of the Birds, Simorgh. Not even a little bit. But I've read enough quest-based literature (pretty much all sci fi and definitely all fantasy, and all mystery, fiction is rooted in the quest branch of literature) to get where I'm supposed to go. The Birds meet and decide to seek out a King whose wisdom is guaranted to answer all their questions and thus provide for all their needs. This leads all the numberless birds off to the mountain Kaf, in China (sort of), where Simorgh lives. Through the many many miles of travel, most of the birds die and, in the end, the hoopoe their leader-bird gets them to Kaf, only to discover that the mountain has only a lake, which the thirty birds remaining fly over, and see themselves in its perfect and still waters...
And there it is. “Thirty Birds” in Attar's native language is “si morgh”...SIMORGH! The king of the birds is...the birds themselves!
Why on earth would I, an agnostic and an old curmudgeon, like such a simplistic “the answer was in you all along” tale? Because it's true, and it's always been true, that looking within for guidance and sustenance and a moral compass is the surest way to make the journey to wisdom short and sweet. It's also been taught to us that we must rely on an external god for revelations and meaningful guidance, and Sufism says that god put all that inside us for us to find, so I find this story a useful corrective to the error and misdirection foisted on people by their religions.
Plus the artwork. Are you a person who, on seeing a maze, MUST solve it before moving on with your day? If you are, this book will please you. There are mazes and mazes and mazes. It's a blast. The meditative beauty of some of the images gave me lovely moments of contemplative trance, and at other times made me feel as though I too was flying, and always left me with the softly stroked sensation of having one's hands and face washed by a gentle, loving hand using soothing scented water.
The paper that The Penguin Press' production people chose for the book is weird, in that it's very strongly textured. This flies in the face of established custom, which dictates the use of very smoothly coated heavy paper for illustrated books. That, the received opinion has it, allows the artwork being printed to speak for itself. Sis's artwork in this book, being watercolory and soft-edged in its execution, would look weak and bland on conventional wisdom's paper, whereas on this strongly textured paper, where the whole sheet has visible large and small geometric structure, the contrast of the artwork's lovely swirls and soft curves and unplanned-looking dissolves from one color to another is made a part of the message.
It is a beautiful object, this book. It is a beautiful and simple message, and one I am already in sympathy with, too: Look. Look inside. Let the wind blow through the empty places...they are there for a reason. And, no matter how many say they will come with you, only a few will ever finish the journey. Treasure them, and the path that led you all to the calm, still lake where your reflection is sharp and clear and starkly beautifully you.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LibroLindsay
Noted children's book artist and author, Peter Sis, has released his first book for adult audiences with a brilliant adaptation of the epic poem, The Conference of the Birds, by the 12th century Sufi poet, Farid ud-Din Attar. This poem begins with the poet transforming into the hoopoe bird and
I first read about this poem a couple years ago when I read Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni. Intrigued, I hunted down a copy of Attar's original text and found the poem's message of self-reliance and resilience overwhelmingly moving. At the same time I thought that this could make a beautiful book if illustrated and condensed to reach a wider audience (since reading an epic poem can be rather daunting to most people). When I found out recently that Peter Sis had taken on this endeavor, I knew that this poem was in good hands. Sis spoke last night at the Schlafly Branch of St. Louis Public Library, presenting both the story and how he connected with it, growing up in the Czech Republic well before the wall came down and then moving to America and honing his craft. He discussed how he found himself in the journey of the poem and how birds have always been a recurring image in his art, symbolizing the ideal of freedom. Thankfully, Penguin appreciated his vision as well, and together they created a stunning tribute. The paper is textured, almost linen-like, lending the book a contemplative feel that reflects its contents. Sis alternates the movement of the birds with moments of contemplation not just with his interpretation of the words, but by contrasting the vibrant colors and stately black-and-white. The poem is already a breathtaking masterpiece by itself; reading it with Sis' touch is an experience. No doubt the care he took into adapting Conference will translate into a resounding personal connection each reader will find within its pages.
Show More
determined to unite the world of warring birds in an exodus to the mountain of Kaf. The Simorgh, the true king of the birds, lives there and will be able to answer all of the birds' questions. Though at first the birds are excited to find resolve to their problems, as they learn just how arduous a journey this will be, they begin to have their doubts. The hoopoe rallies them throughout the journey though some don't and some won't make it. By the end, only 30 birds remain (which, if you know Persian, you know that "si" and "morgh" means "30 birds"), and they find not a king, but themselves, united by their harrowing journey and the answers within themselves all along.I first read about this poem a couple years ago when I read Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni. Intrigued, I hunted down a copy of Attar's original text and found the poem's message of self-reliance and resilience overwhelmingly moving. At the same time I thought that this could make a beautiful book if illustrated and condensed to reach a wider audience (since reading an epic poem can be rather daunting to most people). When I found out recently that Peter Sis had taken on this endeavor, I knew that this poem was in good hands. Sis spoke last night at the Schlafly Branch of St. Louis Public Library, presenting both the story and how he connected with it, growing up in the Czech Republic well before the wall came down and then moving to America and honing his craft. He discussed how he found himself in the journey of the poem and how birds have always been a recurring image in his art, symbolizing the ideal of freedom. Thankfully, Penguin appreciated his vision as well, and together they created a stunning tribute. The paper is textured, almost linen-like, lending the book a contemplative feel that reflects its contents. Sis alternates the movement of the birds with moments of contemplation not just with his interpretation of the words, but by contrasting the vibrant colors and stately black-and-white. The poem is already a breathtaking masterpiece by itself; reading it with Sis' touch is an experience. No doubt the care he took into adapting Conference will translate into a resounding personal connection each reader will find within its pages.
Show Less
LibraryThing member wrensong
A beautiful book in word and images. This is a translation of an ancient work (1177)The story is of a flight of birds, many and different birds, to a mythical place known as 'Kaf' where the King resides. The thrust of the tale is the lessons learned by the birds as they travel through seven
Show More
'valleys' of introspection. What they learn on arrival, the birds that make it all the way, is personal to each of them. A charming book with mesmerizing images on each page. Show Less
LibraryThing member SusanMcKinlay
Soft colors and fine drawings with words provide the story originally told by Farid Ud-Din Attar of northeastern Persia of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Simorgh the king take his fellow birds into seven valleys; each with their own labyrinths. The themes cover: quest, love,
Show More
understanding, detachment, unity, amazement and death. The extra fine texture of the paper makes the book enjoyable to hold and enjoy. Show Less
LibraryThing member edwin.gleaves
Exotic in the extreme
LibraryThing member labfs39
Of the five books I read this week by Sís, this was my favorite. It is a retelling of the 12th century Persian poem by Farid ud-Din Attar. The first thing I noticed when picking up the book was the paper. It's a textured, linen (?) paper that adds to both the tactile and visual experience. Most of
Show More
the pages are designed to look as though they are old parchment, perhaps with coffee stains. Sís begins by morphing the poet into his protagonist, the hoopoe bird and then launching into the story. Every page is stunning, with incredible detail, I've been through the book probably three times now, and every time I discover something new. Combine the artwork with the simple retelling of the story, and the result is a beautiful book that begs to be owned. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sullywriter
Sis's breathtaking art brings new life to the 12th century Persian epic poem. Stunningly illustrated and beautifully designed.
LibraryThing member thelukewarm225
Another beautifully illustrated book from Peter Sis. In the true spirit of poetry, the few words he choses to adapt from the lengthy original beautifully convey the messages and story of the original.
LibraryThing member KimJD
The spare text, based on a 12th-century story, is quite philosophical: this is not a "children's book" per se. The design of the book is remarkable, and the joy is in the details of Sis's lush illustrations.
LibraryThing member rsochu1
I loved this book. The ideas are deep but the writing is not complicated. It is organized in a very interesting way and there are not an overwhelming amount of text. Each chapter is short but carries a lot of meaning. I feel that it could be used in a classroom with upper level elementary kids to
Show More
provoke in depth discussions. This book really pushes the reader to uncover the deeper meaning and understanding of the story. The illustrations on every page are amazing. The combination of illustrations and simple meaningful text make this a truly awesome book. The big idea of the book is to expose readers to beautiful artwork, provide a different point of view and to get children to think about ideas that may be considered "outside of the box". Show Less
LibraryThing member streamsong
Beautiful retelling with beautiful illustrations.
LibraryThing member themulhern
So mystical, I was bored. But the illustrations are still good.