You're Cordially Invited: New movie
To share your reaction on this item, open the Amazon app from the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
£12.15 with 24 percent savings
RRP: £16.04
FREE Returns
FREE Delivery on book orders dispatched by Amazon over £10.00 .
Only 1 left in stock.
££12.15 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££12.15
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatches from
Amazon
Amazon
Dispatches from
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Returns
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund within 30 days of receipt
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Conference of the Birds Hardcover – Picture Book, 16 Sept. 2012

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 92 ratings

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"£12.15","priceAmount":12.15,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"15","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"IXg75eRcSgjmcDHqK1y6nTOhCp%2FmHrStxrkrpZB9GmNsXKvEE9Odj72gGzEkKdJWCrsxyWFCmfLw3fvZ1R6paue6XjD8Qhu9opihUMWYAvS0ZIdEpGbXffTKJkxk8TBM","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Lavishly illustrated by award-winning illustrator, Demi, this magical and inspiring story of the adventures of a flock of wayfaring birds in search of their king will delight children with its tales of overcoming fear, physical hardship, and inner limitations. Based on an 800 year old classical parable, and retold by mother of three, Alexis York Lumbard, it will provide parents with a unique opportunity to teach moral and spiritual development to their children.
Free Gift

Product description

Review

"The Conference of the Birds" is an illuminated retelling of a work titled "Mantiq al-Tayr," by a 12th century Persian poet named Farid al-Din Attar. Beautifully illustrated with fabulous artistic renditions of birds done in a celestial style that draws from Chinese, Japanese, and Persian traditions, "The Conference of the Birds" is a sacred story about the search for enlightenment of the soul, told in effortlessly flowing verse. The fabulously beautiful, enlightened hoopoe addresses his fellow birds, exhorting them to seek to advance to the mystical island home of King Simorgh the wise. Although the story has many obvious Judeo-Christian parallels, it is indeed about the quest for spiritual enlightenment, from the Sufi tradition. Masterfully translated, retold, and illustrated, the story's appeal is both to the naive and to the advanced mind. Children will grasp some of the essential message of hope in overcoming pride, fear, impatience, greed, and sloth in the ever demanding search for the ultimate enlightenment of great King. Each bird has a special obstacle to surpass in their flight. The dazzling and enigmatic ending adds to the mystic and satisfying appeal of the entire story. "The Conference of the Birds" is a beautiful sacred text, retold for the enjoyment and enlightenment of not only children, but everyone.-- "Midwest Book Review"

Lumbard's debut picture book retells for a young audience the most famous work by the 12th-century Persian poet Farid al-Din Attar about a pilgrimage taken by birds to meet "King Simorgh the Wise." Sorrowing because they lack kingly guidance, the birds gather together, receive help from the inspired hoopoe, and depart on their quest. Along the way, individual birds confront spiritual obstacles: the parrot's heavy jewelry weighs her down; the finch fears the storm; the hawk, seeking to arrive first, becomes lost. Prose narration alternates with the hoopoe's rhymed speeches of encouragement, which contain a recurring refrain: "So do not let this impatience/ Destroy this golden chance./ Release its hold upon you now, / And to your King advance!" Set against white full-spread backdrops, red-bordered gilt frames decorated with small birds contain Demi's uncluttered paintings featuring brightly colored, meticulously rendered birds against pale or royal blue watercolor washes. A foreword by scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr provides insight into Sufi poetry and bird symbolism in diverse cultures. Both prose and illustrations combine simplicity and elegance, ably rendering this classic tale for a new generation. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)-- "Publishers Weekly"

This laudable attempt to retell the gist of a 12th-century poem of over 4,000 verses may be of interest to religious educators and parents who want to expose young people to varied spiritual values. Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr has been discussed throughout the centuries, and children and adults in Iran and other Muslim countries have been exposed to its ideas in many different versions. Here, the foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr provides background information on the poem, with its Sufi, Islamic and Zoroastrian elements. In the body of the text, rhyming couplets alternate with prose that summarizes the action cut from the original as the birds take on human personality traits. The hoopoe, resplendent in her red head feathers with black tips undertakes the role of leader and urges the birds to travel together to find their king. Along the way, different birds despair and try to leave the pilgrimage, but they find the strength to continue as the hoopoe helps each one to overcome its particular limitations. The duck is lazy, the parrot has too much finery weighing her down, and the finch is fearful, but all stay faithful to the search, which ultimately leads to great enlightenment. Demi's delicate watercolor-and-mixed-media illustrations, each bordered with a frieze of multiple bird images in every position of flight, suit the text admirably....-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author

This is Alexis York Lumbard's first published children's book, and a second book, called Everyone Prays, is scheduled for publication next year. Having noticed a lamentable absence of high quality books of spiritual substance for the earliest of readers, she began writing her own stories since becoming a mother in 2005. With a B.A. in Religious Studies from George Washington University, it is her sincere hope to bring the wisdom and beauty of the world's religions to the eager and gifted minds of young children. Alexis, her husband, and three children live in Newton, MA. Illustrator Bio: Demi is the award-winning author and illustrator of over 130 bestselling children's books. Her titles have sold over half a million copies. The Empty Pot was selected by former First Lady Barbara Bush in 1990 as one of the books to be read on the ABC Radio Network Program Mrs. Bush's Story Time, sponsored by the Children's Literacy Initiative. Demi's book Gandhi was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and received an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1937786021
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wisdom Tales (16 Sept. 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 44 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1937786021
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1937786021
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 4 - 8 years
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 26.04 x 1.09 x 28.65 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 92 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
92 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 August 2023
    Bought as a present for a small child. His mother loves it and recognises it’s something that her child will enjoy, for different reasons, at different stages of growing up which is what I’d hoped.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 March 2013
    I purchased this for my daughters after reading the complete one a while back. Has been very well presented and bind in quality
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2015
    Great spiritual tale for young kids, illustrated really nicely.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 February 2016
    Beautifully illustrated.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 December 2014
    Can't praise this book enough!!!!
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2024
    I didn’t enjoy the writing - I don’t think this book captures the essence of the original story. Perhaps that’s not possible for a short children’s book.

    A lot of the conversations with the birds from the beginning of the story are missed out, which is the best bit. It just doesn’t read like Sufism. All the charm and humour of the original are gone and is replaced with a boring, dogmatic story that sounds more like a religious cautionary tale than anything spiritual.

    For introducing the story to a child, I preferred the Peter Sis graphic novel (for both the text and illustrations).
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 October 2016
    A beautifully illustrated book with a story of many dimensions. In fact, it is so good, that a child I had the read the story to, used one of the lessons she had learnt from it to apply it to her life. I would recommend you to buy this book, and wish Amazon would allow for four-and-a-half stars! The reason I have given it four stars, is that I have read Attar's original work so many times in my youth, and this book falls just short of presenting a little bit more complexity that I managed to extract from the original when teaching children. Having said that, this edition is a beautiful work of Art in its own right!

Top reviews from other countries

  • Yasmin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book inside out
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on 3 January 2024
    Beautifully illustrated, the wisdom of the story is universal. This islamic wisdom is exactly the spiritual education I want to pass on to my daughter. Recommand 1000%.
  • Mehran K.
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great book!
    Reviewed in Canada on 27 June 2014
    This is a nice illustrated book. But it's not the complete Conference of the birds of Attar. I mean that it tells the whole story with beautiful paintings and a few verses. but it doesn't contain all the verses of the original book.
  • M. Murad
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Timeless Tale in a Beautiful Book
    Reviewed in the United States on 23 January 2013
    A common theme in the reviews of this book has been marvel at the book's beauty, from storytelling to illustration, as well as appreciation for its accessibility to all ages, children and adult. Such marvel and appreciation has been my experience as well.

    If this book can be summed up in one word, it is "beautiful", if in two, it is "beautiful" and "unique", if in three, it is all that and "rich". It is beautiful in many ways, of them are its its captivating storytelling and its tastefully lavish illustration. It is unique in that seldom, or at least not often enough, does an ancient tradition, in this case the Persian Sufi tradition, and the area of contemporary Western children's storytelling meet, and even more rarely do they produce such wonderful pieces of art as this. That is what this book is, a wonderfully holistic piece of art. This book is also rich in many ways. One of them is in the insight it provides, as perhaps most profoundly done in the foreword. This one page contains more reliable insight to the symbolism of birds in the Persian Sufi tradition than days at a conventional library would likely provide a curious soul with. It helps that the author or publisher asked such a well-versed and authoritative scholar to write it.

    In regards to the story itself, there are probably many reasons why such a story lasts about 800 years and going, and continues to be translated for civilizations as foreign and different from its origin's as the modern Western world's. For one, the profound symbolism within it subtly and effectively invites the contemplative reader to examine his or her own life's journey in contexts similar to those of the characters in the story. One finds difficulty flipping through the pages of this book without somehow relating to the scenes portrayed. Reading this story thus proves to be a moving and personal experience, at least to readers that discern between random choices for characters and scenes, on the one hand, and profound symbolism on the other. This story certainly provides the latter. In that way, this book is rich. In its method of storytelling, both verbal and visual, it is beautiful. In its rare combination of things and in its holistic approach to providing a story, it is unique.

    I wish for the world's children, and adults, more well-told stories and holistically produced books like this. Many thanks to the author, illustrator, and all those who have brought this gem of a story to the Western world. The divine orchestration that has lead and fueled their efforts has produced a wonderful book for all ages.
  • JJ
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story and illustrations!
    Reviewed in the United States on 3 January 2024
    The story is beautifully told and would most likely be appreciated by adults as well as children. The artwork is creative and well done. The quality of the book is really superb!
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on 17 November 2016
    The colours and illustrations are fantastic and the story is beautifully told with so much meaning.