Bird Books Deliberate and Accidental

I picked up The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell because it was clearly a bird book, and this year young adult bird books have transported me to many interesting places I wouldn't otherwise go (see, for instance Nightbird, Mockingbird and All the Bright Places).  Based on cover alone, The Aviary is not my sort of book.  Neo-gothic creepiness is not my thing.  But it wasn't that creepy (or Gothic) and I was amusedly transported.  And there were lots of birds.  So it falls into the "definitely recommended for me during bird year" category, along with the, "someone else should read this but I don't know who".  Ask if it might be you.


Okay for Now, by Gary D. Schmidt, by contrast, is unreservedly recommended, and I didn't even know it had birds in it until I got it home from the library.  Schmidt's Wednesday Wars was fabulous, part of the series of YA books that convinced me that I need to read more well-written children's books (rather than poorly written adult books) and I need to read more Shakespeare so that I can understand the likes of The Wednesday Wars and The Dairy Queen.  Okay for Now is a follow-up to The Wednesday Wars, and I was not going to like it as much because 1) the main character of Okay for Now is a jerk in The Wednesday Wars (and much as I believe Amateur Reader when he suggests that shouldn't matter, it does for me) and 2) It is about Jane Eyre.


Somehow, though, Okay for Now has everything going for it. Unexpected birds for one!  Each chapter is named after a bird from an Audubon painting.  It would seem like Schmidt is trying to do too much-- coordinate every chapter with emotions visible in a bird painting, re-tell Jane Eyre, update readers on perspective drawing, preparations for the moon landing and the Yankees, and arouse our sympathies for alcoholics and their families, Vietnam vets, and middle school teachers while telling a story from the perspective of a 13 year-old jerk.  It so worked for me.  I want to go read Jane Eyre just so I can fully get Okay for Now.

"That afternoon, after our Cokes, I drew that Snowy Heron
like I was John James Audubon himself.  Except, my heron,
he was strutting out into the world like that hunter would
never, never come"  OfN, pg. 204.
Image by Audobon, Plate CCXLII

It left me a little heartbroken.  Not because I want to live in poverty in small town New York in 1968-- other books transport me to worlds where I want to stay-- this, clearly did not, but because I was reminded how much a difference teachers can make and I wonder if I'm fulfilling my potential for as many students as I could.  And because this had already been written and I could never write anything that good.  The thought is silly, but I'm left with a little achy despair when I read fabulous things.  In any case, Mom and MiL, GK and other great teachers should read Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, and I'd love to hear the perspective of a Jane Eyre fan (L, AR?).

And who is going to read Jane Eyre with me now?

Stargirl

I read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli sometime in the fall, and couldn't write about it for a while because writing about it just seemed too much for me.  The book is all about high school drama, so italics seem completely apt, although I don't recall Spinelli using any.
Stargirl is a "young adult novel" narrated by Leo, a high school junior when the events happen, about the new girl in school, "Stargirl".
Jerry Spinelli's Newberry Award Winning Maniac McGee helped me through my first major break-up (along with Robyn McKinley's The Blue Sword), so I was prepared for a crazy world: that the book starts with a collection of porcupine neckties did not phase me.  I was not prepared to be so angry at the narrator, and thus myself, for being a non-committal, caring-about-his-image high school student, instead of living fully in the moment like Stargirl.  It made me embarrassed to be the kind of person who appreciates eccentricity but wants to live as a conformist. When I finished I was shaken.

Then I forgot Stargirl until I read The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman last week and many of the same emotions emerged.  The books are very similar, both excellent young adult novels narrated by high school guys who realize, too late, that they didn't treat the titular characters well.  That's despite the completely different settings and premises: Stargirl transforms her high school while Calvin Schwa passes through life unseen.

Stargirl was part of my "glowing" book series, along with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon  by Grace Lin, which I found magically beautiful.  All three books, along with the many others, like The Wednesday Wars, The Dairy Queen, Just Ella and Princess Ben, have been part of the unintentional "a good YA book is so much better than a mediocre adult novel" series.  The Wednesday War and The Dairy Queen were Shakespeare-based, which I did not realize in advance, and Just Ella and Princess Ben fairy tale based, which I did realize.

What are you reading?  Is it about glowing?  Does it glow?