Angelo

By: David Macaulay (2002)

This book by David Macaulay is about a building repairman named Angelo that finds an injured pigeon while he is working on a church. He brings the bird home a nurses it back to health. The bird and Angelo continue to spend lots of time together, going to work and spending time together on the weekends. The bird eventually leaves Angelo's house, going out on its own, however, it does keep an eye on him while he works. The bird begins to notice that Angelo seems to be slowing down in his work and she goes to keep him company and offer encouragement through songs while he works. Angelo just about finishes up with repairing the church when he realizes that he needs to add a permanent nest on the church so that Sylvia, the newly named bird, always has a place to go when Angelo is gone. With the nest complete, Sylvia has a place to call home and Angelo can rest peacefully knowing that Sylvia always has a place to go.

I thought that this was a really heartwarming story about friendship between two different individuals. They both tried to cheer each other up and help each other out in times of need, helping strengthen their bond. This love for each was evident by their desire to make sure that each individual was comfortable.
I think that as a teacher you could use this book to show how you can be friends with all sorts of people, whether they look like you or not. The ability of these characters to see past each others apparent differences sets a good example for how I would like my students to treat each other in my classroom.