Birdie

by Eileen Spinelli

Overview

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.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467463874
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/09/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Eileen Spinelli made her debut in 1991 with Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch(Simon & Schuster), which won a Christopher Award. Since then she has written more than forty children's books, including When No One Is Watching, Jonah's Whale, and Do You Have a Dog? (all Eerdmans). She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and fellow children's writer Jerry Spinelli. Visit her website at www.eileenspinelli.com.
 Eileen Spinelli made her debut in 1991 with Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch (Simon & Schuster), which won a Christopher Award. Since then she has written more than forty children's books, including When No One Is Watching, Jonah's Whale, and Do You Have a Dog? (all Eerdmans). She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and fellow children's writer Jerry Spinelli. Visit her website at eileenspinelli.com.

Editorial Reviews

02/25/2019

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. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

05/01/2019

Gr 5–7—In this novel in verse, 12-year-old Roberta Briggs, called Birdie because of her love and knowledge of birds, is living with her mother and grandmother in a small Pennsylvania town, having moved there from Philadelphia three years before, following the line-of-duty death of her firefighter father. The pain of her loss has somewhat abated, and life is good, but things are changing: her best friend and Sunday Scrabble partner Martin is spending more and more time with a new girl in town, Nina; her grandmother has given up planning her own funeral in favor of a romantic relationship; and her mother's late arrivals home from work reveal a love interest Birdie is not ready to accept. She grapples with jealousy and resentment, but as new people enter her life, she comes to learn that love heals and that change can sometimes happen for the better. Humorous and poignant, Spinelli's lyrical writing, spot-on sense of small town life, and light touch make this a comforting and enjoyable read in an accessible format. VERDICT Exactly the kind of mild-conflict story parents seek for their preadolescents.—Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

School Library Journal

2019-01-15

For at least one young girl, a small town is a good place to navigate early crushes and long-term grief.

Twelve-year-old Birdie knows everything about birds. She doesn't quite want to be one anymore, as she did when she was little, but she still drops hairs from her hairbrush onto the lawn because "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." Mom and Birdie came to live with great-grandmother Maymee in tiny Hadley Falls (too small for a public library) three years ago, after Birdie's firefighter father was killed in the line of duty. The grief isn't fresh but it's ongoing—as are Maymee's eccentricity (she interrupts church to identify an attractive new older worshiper), the five shelves of "lending library" in a neighbor's pantry, and classmate Loretta's preparation to become a therapist by "seeing" neighborhood kids as clients. The adults are all good, the kids occasionally grumpy but kind, and the town safe for 12-year-olds to roam. Even the pains of an unrequited crush or a new man in Mom's life come with soft places to fall. Birdie's free-verse narration is thoughtful and unhurried, and although it's interior, it shows without telling. Birdie and her family seem white by default and cover art; absence of racial markers implies that everyone is white.

A gentle look at daily beauty and at heartache that's not caused by anyone doing anything wrong. (Verse fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews