Birdie
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
A relatable novel-in-verse about loss…and what happens afterwards.
Twelve-year-old Birdie Briggs loves birds. They bring her comfort when she thinks about her dad, a firefighter who was killed in the line of duty. Life without her dad isn't easy, but at least Birdie still has Mom and Maymee, and her friends Nina and Martin. But then Maymee gets a boyfriend, Nina and Martin start dating, and Birdie's mom starts seeing a police officer. And suddenly not even her beloved birds can lift Birdie's spirits. Her world is changing, and Birdie wishes things would go back to how they were before. But maybe change, painful as it is, can be beautiful too.
With compelling verse and a lighthearted touch, Eileen Spinelli captures the poignancy of adolescence and shows what can happen when you let people in. This new paperback edition includes discussion questions after the story to encourage conversations about friendships, family changes, and other themes of the story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spinelli (Love You Always) uses free verse to relay this tender and perceptive story about a 12-year-old negotiating the choppy waters of adolescence. Life is distressingly in flux for Birdie Briggs, so nicknamed for her love of birds ("there is something/ light and feathery/ in my heart/ at the idea/ that a bird/ may be weaving/ the hairs from my brush/ into its nest"). She misses her father, a firefighter who died three years earlier in the line of duty. Now, her best friend, Martin (whom, she laments, "was supposed/ to be my first boyfriend"), has a crush on a new girl in the neighborhood, and Birdie isn't thrilled that her mother has begun dating a police officer: "I just wish he'd get transferred/ to the North Pole./ Or decide to become a monk." And even her feisty widowed grandmother has found a suitor, making Birdie feel more alone. While unveiling her own frustrations and fears, Birdie's earnest narrative presents convincing portraits of these and additional sympathetic characters to shape a meaningful tale about intergenerational bonds, true friendship, and the need to embrace change. Ages 10 14.
