Catherine, Called Birdy

Heartland Award • Commonwealth Club of California Silver Medal • Newbery Honor Book • Horn Book Fanfare • Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts (NCTE) • Parenting Magazine Reading Magic Award • American Bookseller Pick of the Lists • South Carolina Children's Book Award • Golden Kite Award • Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (Vermont) • ALA Notable Children's Book • School Library Journal Best Book • New York Public Library's One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing

Read the book behind Lena Dunham’s acclaimed new movie! This historical fiction classic, told in the form of a diary, has drawn in generations of readers and is a Newbery Honor Book. 

Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man—any rich man, no matter how awful.

But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call—by far the oldest, ugliest, most revolting suitor of them all. Unfortunately, he is also the richest.

Can a sharp-tongued, high-spirited, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lose the battle against an ill-mannered, piglike lord and an unimaginative, greedy toad of a father? Deus! Not if Catherine has anything to say about it!

Catherine, a spirited and inquisitive young woman, narrates in diary form the story of her fourteenth year—the year 1290.

In an appreciation in the New York Times, illustrator Vera Brosgol spoke for many fans of this beloved book: "I fell hard for Karen Cushman's Catherine, Called Birdy the second I opened it. More than any other heroine I'd read, this one sounded like me. For Catherine, and for me, there is no easy solution to the cages life makes for you. Sometimes the power is in deciding to be yourself in whatever cage you're in."