Birdie
by Eileen Spinelli (Author)
Booktalk: Twelve-year-old Birdie Briggs loves birds. They bring her comfort when she thinks about her dad, a firefighter who was killed in the line of duty. Life without her dad isn’t easy, but at least Birdie still has Mom and Maymee, and her friends Nina and Martin.
But then Maymee gets a boyfriend, Nina and Martin start dating, and Birdie’s mom starts seeing a police officer. And suddenly not even her beloved birds can lift Birdie’s spirits. Her world is changing, and Birdie wishes things would go back to how they were before. But maybe change, painful as it is, can be beautiful too.
Snippet:
Unofficially
I read everything
I can about birds.
I love watching them.
I learn their songs.
I keep bird charts
in my room.
I use my allowance
to buy birdseed
for our backyard feeders.
And then
there is my name.
My birth certificate says
I’m Roberta Briggs.
But the minute I turn eighteen,
I’m changing it to Birdie Briggs.
Officially.
For now
Birdie (unofficially)
is what everyone calls me.
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