Birdie

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.)

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