Strange Birds

July 1, 2019
A quartet of mismatched girls find themselves united for unforgettable summer adventures. Lane DiSanti wants to avoid boredom during her summer at Sabal Palms. Her grandmother, Mrs. DiSanti, wants her to join the Floras, a beauty pageant/girls club Mrs. DiSanti's family helped found. Instead, Lane forms the Ostentation of Others and Outsiders, her own version of the Floras, by leaving secret messages for potential friends to find. At first, rebel/artist Lane, foodie Aster Douglas, aspiring-journalist Ofelia Castillo, and bird-watcher Cat Garcia cannot seem to find common ground. However, Cat, a Floras defector, informs them the ancient hat used to crown the Miss Floras is made of real bird feathers. Finally united, the quartet of strange birds begins campaigning to get the Floras' leader to stop using the hat. Their plans backfire one after the other as the Miss Floras pageant grows closer. Soon, the Ostentation must choose to either give up the fight or escalate their efforts. Shifting perspective girl by girl and writing with wry restraint that's reminiscent of Kate DiCamillo, Pérez doesn't shy away from acknowledging that the consequences might not be equal for each girl, as they differ in background--Lane presents white, Aster is Bahamian, and Ofelia and Cat are both Cuban--and socio-economic status. As their friendship develops, the secrets they hide from their families and each other might grow large enough to tear them apart. A beautiful tale of the value of friendship against unconquerable odds. (Fiction. 9-12)

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Starred review from July 15, 2019
Four unique personalities form a crew with a mission in this engaging, well-plotted second novel from Peréz (The First Rule of Punk). New in Sabal Palms, Fla., and living with her grandmother during her parents’ divorce, Lane DiSanti, who is white, randomly places anonymous invitations to her grandmother’s opulent home, leading the recipients to form a secret scout troop, “the Ostentation of Others and Outsiders,” the summer before seventh grade. Each has a personal motivation for joining the eclectic group: Ofelia Castillo, the daughter of protective Cuban immigrants, is a budding investigative journalist intent on uncovering the affluent DiSanti family’s secrets; Cat Garcia, a passionate birder, wants to expose the tragic history behind a local troop’s celebrated artifact but feels pressure from her Cuban-American family to fall in line; and culinary whiz Aster Douglas believes her Bahamian ancestors might have been swindled out of the DiSanti fortune. As the girls rally behind Cat’s cause, important, nuanced discussions about privilege, institutional racism, and rectifying historical wrongs arise, prompting each to a deeper understanding of intersectionality and activism. Ages 9–12. Agent: Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary.

Starred review from August 1, 2019

Gr 4-7-Lane Disanti is spending the summer with her grandmother as she tries to get used to a newly fractured family. Lane decides to create a secret club to make some friends of her own. Banking on anonymity and mystery being an enticement, she drops invitations into programming bags at the library. Three very different girls find the invitations and attend the first meeting. Ofelia Castillo is a budding 12-year-old reporter always on the hunt for the next big story. Having overprotective parents means Ofelia has little opportunity to put her sleuthing skills to good use. Aster Douglas lives with her grandpa, who homeschools her and teaches her the art of civil disobedience. She whips up culinary delights to distract her from the absence of a father who died in combat and a mother stationed in Japan. Catarina Garcia is a young ornithologist trapped by her mother's desire to see her wearing the feathery crown of the Floras, the local Scouts. The other Floras members, including her old best friend Alice, make fun of her ideas about bird preservation. The four girls learn about friendship as they grow to support one another over a common cause. This story is a wonderful look at the complex and fragile nature of friendships. Pérez skillfully examines themes of change, allowing each girl to shine, and their unique character arcs are creatively explored. VERDICT A perfect title for school and public libraries seeking realistic books about friendship.-Desiree Thomas, Worthington Library, OH

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019
Grades 5-8 P�rez follows her award-winning debut, The First Rule of Punk (2017), with a well-crafted story of friendship and activism as four rising seventh-graders form a secret club that endeavors to make a local scout troop (the Floras) stop using an unethically made feathered hat in its annual pageant. Each girl brings a unique passion and perspective to the group that plays a key role in the story's development. Cat and Ofelia are Cuban American with very different family lives. Bird-obsessed Cat feels pressure to uphold the family tradition of participating in the Flora pageant, and Ofelia (an aspiring journalist) feels smothered by her overprotective parents. Meanwhile, Bahamian American Aster is bright but socially awkward, as a result of being homeschooled. When the girls take up Cat's Flora protest, issues of race and class emerge, proving particularly eye-opening to white, privileged Lane. At times these conversations feel purposeful, but there's no denying their importance. Readers will be invested in the girls' mission, while gaining perspective on how different people's experiences of a shared situation can be.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)