Title: Birdy

Author: Sharon Kernot

Reviewer: Rhonda Bruce

Audience: 14+ (contains references to trauma)

"I have not yet spoken one word to anyone here, outside my family, but maybe today that will change. Maybe today my words will uncork themselves and flow like something liquid" (Pg 46)

Maddy has selective mutism - she is choosing not to speak after "The Incident". Alice is waiting for her daughter, Birdy, to come home. It's been 45 years since Birdy left. When Maddy and her family move to a farmhouse near Alice's town, these two unlikely people connect until Maddy takes something precious.