Extraordinary Birds
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
For fans of The Thing About Jellyfish, Counting by 7s, and Fish in a Tree, a heartbreaking and hopeful story about a unique young girl on a journey to find home.
"An amazing debut -- filled with heart, lyrical prose, and a heroine who soars!" - Jewell Parker Rhodes, New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Boys
December believes she is a bird. The scar on her back is where her wings will sprout, and one day soon, she will soar away. It will not matter that she has no permanent home. Her destiny is in the sky.
But then she's placed with foster mom Eleanor, a kind woman who volunteers at an animal rescue and has secrets of her own. December begins to see that her story could end a different way – but could she ever be happy down on the ground?
In her arresting debut, Sandy Stark-McGinnis offers an inspiring story about family, friendship, and finding where you belong.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After bouncing from one foster residence to the next for three years, December, 11, dreams about reuniting with her mother and also about transforming into a bird, wings bursting from the scars on her back. Her current foster mom, Eleanor, works with birds as an animal rehabilitator and a taxidermist, which fascinates and disquiets December in equal measure. As December helps Eleanor rehabilitate a red-tailed hawk and finds a new friend in her classmate Cheryllynn (whose gender fluidity is mocked and rejected by their classmates), she cautiously begins to honestly acknowledge her past while contemplating what "belonging to a place" might mean. Stark-McGinnis nimbly constructs poignant relationships born of reciprocal patience, trust, and understanding, and December's connections with Eleanor, Cheryllynn, and the red-tailed hawk feel authentic and earned. The physical and emotional trauma December experiences before entering foster care is alluded to with care, effectively depicted through the lens of December's belief that she is a bird, fleeting memories, and sensory impressions. This sensitive debut is a sincere and hopeful exploration of family, history, and belonging from a promising new voice. Ages 8 12.