Meredith Kiger, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
This challenging but heart-warming story of a young girl’s search for identity reveals the interconnectedness of four seemingly unrelated families. Written in an empathetic style that reveals the often convoluted thoughts and feelings of young teens, the story follows 14-year-old Bird’s search for her recently departed stepfather. Bird is crushed by his sudden, unexplained departure and decides to set out to find him. The journey takes her from her home in Cleveland, Ohio to a small town in Alabama, where her stepfather, Cecil, grew up. Bird hides out in the barn of a family whose son, Ethan, not only befriends Bird and has a story of his own to tell, but whose beloved uncle turns out to be Cecil, the missing stepfather. The story becomes complex as other characters, seemingly unrelated to Bird’s adventure, are revealed. There is Jay’s family whose brother’s recent death has provided a new heart for Ethan’s ailing brother, plus there’s old Mrs. Pritchard, whom Bird ends up living with for a while, but also has a direct connection to Jay’s story. Through it all, the author’s poetic text reveals the complexity of the process of growing up and coming to peace with who you are. Descriptions of everyday life in a small Southern town are vivid and satisfying, adding to the intimacy of the story. 2004, Dial Books, $15.99. Ages 12 to 15.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2005)
Bird has run away from home, hoping to find her stepfather, Cecil. She thinks, just maybe, she can convince him to come back. Now she’s hiding out in a shed, spying on Cecil’s relatives and hoping to make her heart and her family whole again. Ethan knows about the girl living in the shed, but he hasn’t told anyone. Once sickly, Ethan has never had the chance to make friends. A heart transplant has turned his health around, but it can’t erase years of loneliness. Ethan doesn’t know Bird’s connection to his Uncle C.L., but as he gets to know her, he finds himself feeling at home in his new heart for the first time. Jay finds himself wondering about Ethan. Does he like peanut butter? Jay’s older brother Derek did, and now Derek’s heart beats in Ethan’s chest, while Jay’s heart grows hard with the loss. But when Jay meets Bird, he discovers he can still know laughter. Chapters switch between the voices of these three children on the verge of adolescence whose lives intersect in remarkable ways, offering a unique look at each character from both the inside out and outside in. Angela Johnson deftly weaves a strong and delicate story about love, loss, and letting go. CCBC categories: Fiction for Children. 2004, Dial, 133 pages, $15.99. Ages 10-13.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 14))
Bird confronts friendship, family, and human limitations in this poignant tale. Thirteen-year-old Bird has run away from her Ohio home to search for her vanished stepfather. Hiding in a shed in Acorn, Alabama, Bird dances by moonlight and tries not to be too lonely. She can't help but get involved with the people she meets: Ethan, a boy whose life was saved by a heart transplant; Jay, whose brother died suddenly; and old Mrs. Pritchard, who used to bake peach cobbler before she lost her husband. Bird covetously observes the happy families of Acorn, but doesn't see that everyone has grief and tragedies to bear. Told through the alternating voices of Bird, Jay, and Ethan, this moving journey follows four lonely people as they touch each other's lives. A lovely and sad glimpse of individuals caring for one another in an imperfect world. 2004, Dial, 144p, $15.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 13. Starred Review. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Janis Flint-Ferguson (KLIATT Review, September 2004 (Vol. 38, No. 5))
In such novels as Heaven and Songs of Faith, Angela Johnson has created a store of poignant characters with spare, poetic narratives. Bird is another novel filled with three such poignant characters. Although Bird is the title character, she is one of three narrators, each moving the story forward by picking up where the other leaves off and each bringing the facts and experiences of lives the others know nothing about. Bird is a runaway from Cleveland who has followed after the stepfather who abandoned her family, hoping to reunite with him and reunite the family she idealizes. She takes shelter in the shed of an Alabama farm family, sneaking into their house for food and baths. The family's son, Ethan, is recovering from a critical illness. He and Bird meet and maintain a loose and playful friendship as he explores his new health and regains his strength. The third narrator is Jay, a troubled kid from a family that has recently lost a son. Jay meets Bird after covering her in Alabama red dirt. He too develops a friendship with Bird as he comes to terms with the death of his brother and his own delinquent behavior. There are two significant adults who loosely connect the three teens to each other: Bird's stepfather, Cecil, a long-distance runner (in more ways than one); and a compassionate, wise widow, Mrs. Pritchard, who understands loss and healing. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: J--Recommended for junior high school students. 2004, Penguin, Dial Books, 144p., $15.99. Ages 12 to 15.

Judith Beavers (Library Media Connection, March 2005)
Bird, a 13-year-old runaway from Cleveland, hops a bus to Alabama in search of her errant stepfather. Her quest to find personal happiness and security from a man who does not have the capability to give either gradually gives way to that realization. With the eye of a poet, Angela Johnson reveals the innermost consciousness of each character using first person narrative. The world is not a kind place for these children. Bird feels as though her heart has been taken from her when her stepfather leaves. Ethan is not yet sure he can trust his new heart to allow him to run and do all the normal activities ordinary children take for granted. Jay grieves the loss of his younger brother whose heart now beats inside Ethan. Jay must fully confront his brother's death and the fact he has betrayed the trust of two people he loves. The characters step deftly around one another in a dance trying not to touch, yet inadvertently converging to everyone's advantage. Teachers will find lots of food for thought, imagery, recurrent symbols throughout, and many things for students to consider. This would make a good classroom read-aloud. Students will find they must use their skills of inference to link the details given in each first-person narrative. The award-winning author has written yet another excellent work. Recommended. 2004, Dial Press (Penguin Putnam), 133pp., $15.99 hc. Ages 10 to 14.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2004 (Vol. 58, No. 4))
Having lost her father before she was two, thirteen-year-old Bird is unwilling to let her stepfather disappear as well, so she leaves Cleveland and takes a bus to Alabama, hoping to find Cecil and bring him back to her and her mother. Once there, she takes up residence in the shed of a farm family, and her story becomes intertwined with the stories of two boys--Ethan, who has recently received a heart transplant and is the youngest member of the farm family, and Jay, whose brother Derek was Ethan's donor. Bird's presence in their lives helps Jay finally to grieve his brother's death, and Ethan to find the courage to live his new life more boldly; the boys' losses and fears help Bird see that she won't find what she longs for in Cecil. Connections and revelations unfold slowly through chapters that alternate between the voices of Bird, Ethan, and Jay, but avid readers of recent fiction will have little trouble switching between the different narrators and perspectives, as Johnson manages to give each a distinctive voice and a compelling backstory. As is her wont, however, she leaves significant gaps in the mundane details that hold her poetic portraits together, the most significant being how Bird was able to find the farm family in Alabama, who, as it turns out, are Cecil's relatives, from a picture she finds among his things in Cleveland. Cecil's complex character remains sketchy as well; beloved by both Ethan and Bird, he is capricious and inconsistent, and though some great past tragedy is alluded to as an explanation for his mania for running (both literally and figuratively), no details are forthcoming. However, readers willing to accept the spiderweb of fate that draws these characters together will find a sweetly compelling story of forgiveness, insight, community, and acceptance of the things that scar us. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2004, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2004, Dial, 133p, $15.99. Grades 5-8.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2005)
Thirteen-year-old Bird has traveled from Ohio to Alabama in search of her stepfather; Ethan has had a heart transplant; Jay is mourning the death of his brother (who was Ethan’s donor). The lives of each of these three teen narrators intersect, under unusual circumstances and with lasting effects. Johnson’s prose is eloquent and poetic in this spare, powerful novel about matters of the heart. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2004, Dial, 135pp, 15.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Jessica Mize (VOYA, February 2005 (Vol. 27, No. 6))
Bird lives inside the "Farm House People's" shed in Acorn, Alabama. Ethan sees her from his window, dancing in the moonlight. Ethan wants to dance with the "Shed Girl," but that would mean leaving the room in which he has spent his whole life, waiting for his new heart. Jay wonders how the runaway girl he met at the pond got him to say the words, "My brother is dead," when he cannot even bring himself to clean Derek's side of the room, especially because his mother has already removed all other memories of Derek from the house. Jay wonders if Derek lives on in some way, if maybe the boy he sees at church every week likes peanut butter too, just like Derek did. Bird is a girl in search of the only father she has ever known, who left without saying goodbye. And while waiting for him in his hometown, she unknowingly heals the broken hearts of those she meets-and her own. Using three voices, Johnson shows the depth to which suffering, loss, and change affect three young people. With almost audible emotion, her narration feels like theater, especially when Bird speaks. Her voice is rich, mature, and touching. Bird's warmth is subtle, and without ever revealing her own reasons for being there, she becomes the security blanket that the other characters need. As with Johnson's other novels, this book is tightly written with every word flowing into the next. Johnson balances extremely conflicting feelings affecting all three characters with the resolution that life goes on. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2004, Dial, 144p., $15.99. Ages 11 to 15.