Every Bird a Prince
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Nominated for the 2023 Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
A girl's quest to save a forest kingdom is intertwined with her exploration of identity in Every Bird a Prince, a gorgeous middle-grade contemporary fantasy by Jenn Reese, the award-winning author of A Game of Fox & Squirrels, perfect for fans of Josephine Cameron and Barbara O'Connor.
The only time Eren Evers feels like herself is when she’s on her bike, racing through the deep woods. While so much of her life at home and at school is flying out of control, the muddy trails and the sting of wind in her face are familiar comforts.
Until she rescues a strange, magical bird, who reveals a shocking secret: their forest kingdom is under attack by an ancient foe—the vile Frostfangs—and the birds need Eren's help to survive.
Seventh grade is hard enough without adding “bird champion” to her list of after-school activities. Lately, Eren’s friends seem obsessed with their crushes and the upcoming dance, while Eren can’t figure out what a crush should even feel like. Still, if she doesn’t play along, they may leave her behind…or just leave her all together. Then the birds enlist one of Eren's classmates, forcing her separate lives to collide.
When her own mother starts behaving oddly, Eren realizes that the Frostfangs—with their insidious whispers—are now hunting outside the woods. In order to save her mom, defend an entire kingdom, and keep the friendships she holds dearest, Eren will need to do something utterly terrifying: be brave enough to embrace her innermost truths, no matter the cost.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reese's (A Game of Fox and Squirrels) contemplative contemporary fantasy delicately addresses middle school fears and social anxieties alongside one Oregon adolescent's exploration of sexuality. When white seventh grader Eren Evers's boy-crazy best friends, Black science enthusiast Jessie and white theater kid Kayla, pressure her to reveal her crush, Eren names popular Latinx athlete Alex Ruiz, even though the whole idea of crushes makes her ill at ease. But when the bird princes of the magical Resplendent Nest recruit Eren and Alex as their champions in a fight against the wolflike frostfangs, which feed on doubt and have already conquered other animal kingdoms, the two develop a close friendship. To counter the frostfangs, the duo must discover their inner truths, which for Eren come closest when she rides her beloved bike through the woods, and for Alex involve music. Meanwhile, a conversation with Alex's asexual, pan-romantic sister gives Eren the framework to consider her own sexuality. Eren's relatable effort to find her own path is sympathetically wrought, while the conflict between the birds and frostfangs provides an alternate lens for a protagonist working through layers of feelings. Ages 9–12.
