Birdie and Me

November 1, 2019
Two siblings struggle to adjust to life with their two very different uncles. Twelve-year-old Jack and 9-year-old Birdie, white children named after Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson, respectively, are happy enough living with Uncle Carl, eating Honey Bunny Buns (a convenience-store foodstuff that shows up far too often for no discernible reason) and helping him win the heart of his food-truck-operator girlfriend. Their mother died almost a year ago in a car accident following a history of episodes that some may recognize as bipolar disorder, and Carl's tiny town of Moser, California, is less welcoming than their old home in Oregon. Birdie's attendance at school is spotty; classmates and administrators think that a young boy in pink leggings, headbands, and nail polish is distracting, and truancy officers remove the children to live with taciturn Uncle Patrick, who is more than happy to enforce a gender-normative dress code on Birdie. A flat plot basically follows the children through this adjustment period, and much of the conflict centers on the various bullies Birdie has to deal with, including an obligatory scene of homophobic violence in a boy's bathroom. Despite the young protagonists, most of the book focuses on the relationships among the various adults, with the children serving more as instruments than fully realized or engaging characters. A paint-by-numbers coming-of-age--it's readable, but that's about it. (Fiction. 10-14)

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December 9, 2019
Nuanez’s debut follows a long tradition of middle grade novels about children virtually on their own, navigating a world of imperfect adults. The children in question are narrator Jack, 12, and her brother Birdie, nine, a gender-creative, fashionably precocious kid whose Alexander McQueen–inspired style is underappreciated—to say the least—in the tiny town of Moser, Calif. That’s where the siblings end up, bouncing between their late mother’s much older brothers after she dies in a somewhat mysterious car accident. Carl, affirming but unreliable, forgets to send them to school regularly, so they move in with responsible but stoic Patrick, who defends and respects Birdie in his own way despite his stern demeanor. Nuanez slowly unspools the circumstances surrounding Jack and Birdie’s mother’s death, working up to a revelation that feels both surprising and inevitable, and resists simplistic characterizations, slowly divulging both uncles’ strengths and weaknesses with a well-paced, deceptively subdued plot. Sure-handed storytelling and choice details revealed through Jack’s observation notebook mark a strong middle grade debut. Ages 10–up. Agent: Susan Hawk, the Bent Agency.

Starred review from January 1, 2020

Gr 3-7-When their mama died in a car accident, Jack and her younger brother, Birdie, moved in with their kind, if irresponsible, Uncle Carl. But after 10 months of convenience store food and sporadic school attendance, Carl's estranged brother, Patrick, must take them in. Emotionally distant Patrick, whom Birdie calls "a clam," may cook them proper meals, but he does not understand Birdie's gender creative identity and interest in fashion, or the children's complicated feelings about their erratic mother, her mental illness, and her death. In short notebook entries scattered throughout the novel, Jack observes the adults governing her life and the grief that animates them. Nuanez excels in depicting a complex family dynamic filtered through a child's perception. More than anything else, this novel captures the children's feelings of powerlessness when decisions about where they live, what they wear, and who they can even visit are made by imperfect adult guardians. Also addressed are gender nonconformity, bullying, and adults' misguided solutions to both, in a refreshingly frank and thoughtful way that always centers the children's perspectives and understanding of themselves. As Jack, Birdie, and their uncles stumble toward mutual understanding, they build a community of supportive people-imperfect, unsure, but trying their best. VERDICT This singular story of a grieving and unconventional family belongs alongside Holly Goldberg Sloan's Counting by 7s, Cindy Baldwin's Where the Watermelons Grow, and Ali Benjamin's The Thing about Jellyfish. Highly recommended.-Molly Saunders, Manatee County Public Libraries, Bradenton, FL

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December 1, 2019
Grades 5-8 Since their mother's recent death, Jack and her little brother, Birdie, have been living with their hapless uncle Carl, until his truancy leads to guardianship being transferred to their aloof uncle Patrick. Now, in Patrick's house in their mother's former hometown, Jack and Birdie must cope with her death, while building a new life?and a new family?among a seemingly resentful guardian and townspeople who aren't all tolerant of Birdie's gender nonconformity. Nuanez's debut tells an endearing story of family in the wake of tragedy, anchored by the wonderfully loving and supportive relationship between Jack and Birdie. Told through Jack's first-person point of view and intercut by pages from her observation journal that provide the occasional poetic flourish, the prose flows seamlessly and the dialogue feels undeniably real. In a book less concerned with plot, it's this veracity of character, along with Jack's accepting perspective, that will make it easy for readers to relate to Birdie as he explores identity and gender creativity?his preference for traditionally feminine clothing and cosmetics?on the page.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)