“The Wooblers” by LG Bridges

The Wooblers

LG Bridges    
Baby Crow, an imprint of Colorful Crow
Publishing (2025)
ISBN:  978-1964271330
Reviewed by Megan Weiss for Reader Views (01/2026)

The Wooblers, written by LG Bridges and illustrated by Tammie J. Walters, is a story-within-a-story that preaches loyalty, individuality, and not letting the past keep you from changing the future.  Faith has always been different than the other Wooblers in the Great Northern Thicket.  With vibrant pink and purple feathers, a love of plants, and harboring a fierce joy not presented by others in her flock, Faith has never paid much heed to all the grown-ups who tell her she needs to be more like everyone else.  Why should she hide her colors, or give up soaring in circles instead of straight lines, and singing as loud as she can with her voice that weebles instead of woobles? Her friends, her younger sister, and her peers have always accepted her – and admired her – for her individuality. 

As she approaches adulthood, however, she is given an ultimatum by their leader: act and look like the other Wooblers or else.  Devastated that the elders cannot see her individuality as an asset rather than an oddity – and scared of being ostracized or prevented from making her first nest come Spring – Faith strives to do as she is told.  Then, she learns a startling secret – something that could upend the entire Woobler way of life if it got out.  Wooblers do not migrate – except for one.  Is it possible that there are other Wooblers out there who are also different like her?

The Wooblers is a highly enjoyable children’s book perfect for young readers in grades three through five.  With beautiful illustrations and fast-paced, concise chapters, the story is easily digestible for young minds and filled with just enough suspense to entice audiences to hunker down for a few extra minutes to find out what happens next.  I thought book-ending the story with the prologue and epilogue about the Captain and his family was beautiful.  Maybe some would think it too sentimental, but I loved how, through the Wooblers, we end up learning about his family.  The characters of Faith and Hope, for instance, reveal as much about the bird sisters as they do their namesakes.  Even though we only see the human characters for a small portion of the book, it still feels like we got to know them quite intimately because of how the Captain portrayed them in his story. 

The themes presented in The Wooblers are not uncommon in children’s literature: being true to yourself, making brave choices for the right reasons, and the true meaning of loyalty and friendship. Above all, treasuring our individuality is paramount.  Throughout the first half of the book, we see Faith being told by her parents, aunt, Grandmother, and the elders of the flock that she’s too different.  She must stop eating plants and eat bugs like everyone else.  She should try to comb her brown and grey feathers over her colorful plumage. She needs to stop singing so happily and flying in swirling arcs and circles in favor of the sharp, straight lines used by the other Wooblers.  Faith’s differences are perceived as a kind of threat, in that if she is encouraged to like those differences and love her strangeness, it might encourage other Wooblers to want to look and act differently too.  When change threatens the status quo, people often tend to close ranks and even panic, depending on the situation.

To the contrary, I loved how Faith emphasized how her friends and sister view her individuality: as something beautiful – something to strive for and admire.  This is such a stark representation of how differently adults and children seem to think in our world.  Children have such open minds.  It does not matter what language one speaks – or what their voice sounds like.  It does not matter if they have blue hair or brown hair, or if they like veggies over sweets.  Their hearts – and minds – remain open and geared towards loving those around them. Children only learn to exclude others or mock differences by observing adult interactions. In a way, I think The Wooblers speaks as much to adult readers as it does children, because it reminds us to not only treasure our innate differences and quirks, but those of others, as well.

The Wooblers is a beautiful tale, perfect for families to read together and young classrooms.  Through it, young readers will not only strengthen their reading skills, but their friendship skills and self-confidence, as well.