The Cuckoo Child is intended as a light, fun, easy read for children just passing the initial "chapter book" phase of their reading level. If compared to most other books at that same level, I would give it a higher rating than 3 stars... but compared with YA literature on the whole? The book is fun, but not especially memorable, and has no real lessons to teach.
Jack Daw loves birds. When his class takes a field trip to a wildlife preserve, he steals an ostrich egg. He hatches the egg on his farm by placing it under a brooding goose. The goose "foster parents" raise the ostrich as their own. Some chapters focus on Jack and his thoughts and actions, others focus on Oliver (the ostrich) and his goose parents, and their thoughts and actions. It is one of those books like Charlotte's Web, where animals talk, but humans can't understand them.
In a book that aimed higher, the focus might be on Jack learning not to steal, but in this light approach, confessing his crime to the wildlife preserve, over a year after the ostrich is hatched, only results in them offering him a job working with ostriches when he finishes school. But the reader understands that Jack is a good boy, and his theft of the egg was just a plot device to get an ostrich into his care, not a statement of his larcenous approach to life. ( )

Awfully nice story, early chapter book for about ages 7-10. Jack has a way with birds, and a supportive family. But stealing an ostrich egg is wrong. Nice resolution. As always the text is clean, graceful, and the illustrations are appropriate and sufficient.

Would also work well for a family to share. Everyone could say what kind of exotic animal they'd like to raise, if any, and could discuss just how wrong it was to steal the egg, and whether different aspects of the story are believable or fantasy, etc. ( )