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Summary
Summary
Bird, a thirteen-year-old girl with a mission, has run away in pursuit of her stepfather. She's sure she'll be able to convince him to return home--to fill the hole he left in their family. And while she hides near his sister's farmhouse, she becomes entwined in the lives of three people who also have holes to fill: Ethan, whose heart troubles have kept him too sheltered from kids his own age; Jay, whose brother has died unexpectedly; and Mrs. Pritchard, whose house has been too empty since her husband was moved to a nursing home.
Through the unique voices of the three kids, an eloquent, affecting story unfolds--the story of how one individual's warmth and kindness can heal so many hurts. Bird will leave you thoroughly uplifted.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-An open-ended, interconnected narrative in three voices. Bird, 13, has run away from Cleveland to rural Alabama, trying to find her stepfather, Cecil, and bring him home. Ethan, who turns out to be Cecil's nephew, is adjusting to the freedom that a heart transplant affords him. Jay is grieving for his brother, whose death provided the necessary heart. Bird hides out in a shed on Ethan's family's farm, convinced that Cecil will come because she'd seen Ethan in the man's photographs. She soon gets lonely. Conveniently, Ethan, who has been socially isolated by his illness, is anxious to befriend her. Jay knows about Ethan, but cannot bring himself to approach the younger boy. Persuaded by his best friend to "borrow" an elderly neighbor's car, Jay winds up under house arrest, but sneaks out and encounters Bird himself. The owner of the stolen car, Mrs. Pritchard, offers Bird refuge at her house, providing her comfort through good food and a patient, nonjudgmental ear. Johnson reveals the inner thoughts of these characters, as they move around one another, occasionally touching, but preoccupied with their individual problems. Readers see how small kindnesses can ease the grip of grief and how large gestures-the literal giving of a heart-can redound to the giver's credit. Much is left unresolved by the conclusion of the book, but the many truths about human emotion and interaction are exposed for readers' examination.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Johnson's (The First Part Last) quiet, affecting story told in three voices follows Bird, 13, as she runs away in pursuit of her stepfather. In rural Alabama, Bird is befriended by two boys connected by a single heart: Ethan, her stepfather's nephew and recent recipient of a heart transplant, and Jay, a teen coping with the sudden death of his younger brother-a death that provided a healthy heart for sickly Ethan. All three introspective teens seem mature beyond their years, even when they do stupid things (such as riding along in a stolen car), and Johnson's lyric touch occasionally lapses into twee moments (as when Ethan spies Bird dancing in the moonlight on his family's property). But the overwhelming kindness of these characters (Ethan keeps Bird's secret, Ethan's parents plant flowers, without explanation, in Jay's yard) trumps the occasional lapses in verisimilitude. The author leavens all the hurt with humor; Bird wonders, for instance, why everyone she meets in Alabama offers her a meal. "They'll feed you if they think you're hungry, guess you're hungry, or if you aren't hungry but they are." In the satisfying ending, Bird realizes she's run after the wrong thing, but the time spent in the compassionate world Johnson has created makes this a worthwhile journey anyway-for her heroine and readers. Ages 10-14. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Middle School) Like a more bereft version of Goldilocks, thirteen-year-old Bird sneaks into the kitchen of the people she calls ""the farmhouse family"" and eats their leftover breakfasts while they are at church. Bird is one-third of the narrative trio Johnson delicately choreographs in this spare novel about matters of the heart. For the other two narrators, Ethan and Jay, these matters are literal -- Ethan has recently had a heart transplant; Jay's younger brother was the donor. Bird, a runaway from Ohio, has had her heart broken by her stepfather Cecil, who moved out without saying goodbye. Now she's secretly camping out in a shed on Ethan's family's property in rural Alabama, hoping Cecil (who is Ethan's uncle) will show up there so she can confront him. The connections that bind the three narrators are revealed gradually, and readers always know more about them than the three know about one another. Johnson's prose is eloquent and poetic as always, though it could stand to be more concrete at times. Some key conversations apparently happen offstage, and it can be frustrating to discover, for instance, that Bird knows about Ethan's medical history when we didn't see her receive the information. Nevertheless, these interwoven stories, strong and intriguing on their own, are all the more powerful for how they fit together. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Bird confronts friendship, family, and human limitations in this poignant tale. Thirteen-year-old Bird has run away from her Ohio home to search for her vanished stepfather. Hiding in a shed in Acorn, Alabama, Bird dances by moonlight and tries not to be too lonely. She can't help but get involved with the people she meets: Ethan, a boy whose life was saved by a heart transplant; Jay, whose brother died suddenly; and old Mrs. Pritchard, who used to bake peach cobbler before she lost her husband. Bird covetously observes the happy families of Acorn, but doesn't see that everyone has grief and tragedies to bear. Told through the alternating voices of Bird, Jay, and Ethan, this moving journey follows four lonely people as they touch each other's lives. A lovely and sad glimpse of individuals caring for one another in an imperfect world. (Fiction. 10-13) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-10. I thought it was enough that I had to lose two fathers before I'm even a teenager. At 13, Bird runs south from Ohio, searching for the stepfather that left her family. Ethan, a boy with a fragile heart, knows Bird is hiding on his family farm, but he doesn't know why. Ethan's neighbor Jay is still in shock over the recent death of his beloved younger brother. Alternating between these three young voices, Johnson tells a poignant, lyrical story about children struggling to overcome nearly irreparable heartbreak. Some of the connections between characters seem stretched, particularly the links made through the extraordinary kindness of aging Mrs. Pritchard, who knows just what to ask and when. But Johnson writes with a poet's knowledge of rhythm and knows how to use the space between words; the disconnect between what the boys think and what they say is especially well done. Johnson also creates a visceral sense of each character's search for love and connection, particularly Bird's deep loneliness and her longing for parents who aren't there. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2004 Booklist