BIRD -- Rita Murphy

Delacorte Press -- hc

New York -- 2008 -- 150pp

ISBN: 978-0-385-73018-1

A young girl, deposited by the wind on the doorsteps of a sad and lonely house, looks to the wind to take her away to her freedom.

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There is something very appealing about this book -- partly it's Rita Murphy's writing style, partly it's the just slightly off-kilter characters and story (aptly depicted by the artist of the hardcover version). But at the same time, there's something definitely lacking here. There was no sense of accomplishment; no big "hurrah" for the young girl at the end, and that says to me that we didn't care for her enough.

I've been talking to my theatre class about 'dramatic conflict' and while I know the difference between a book and theatre, even a book needs to have some conflict (an obstacle). Here is where the focus gets a bit muddy. Is the obstacle in the girl's way the house itself? Wisteria (her guardian)? The legend of the missing fortune? Of herself? It's a little bit of all of them, which is why it isn't as clean as it could be.

The story of the missing fortune is not really necessary. It's a subplot that doesn't really go anywhere.

An interesting book that reached for more but didn't quite get there.