Title: How to Make a Bird
Author: Martine Murray [author page]
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher (via BEA)
Parental Advisory: drugs, alcohol, sex
Teachable Moments: mental instability, adultery, broken family, death, dealing with grief, survivors guilt

“I was walking, feet in the shallows.  You couldn’t tell, if you watched, whether the darkness was fading out of the sky or whether the light was seeping in.  I knew that soon the sun would rise and people would come in their white jogging shoes puffing up and down the beach.  The trams would start rattling and clanking and cars would zoom past.  The day would creak into action, just like any other day.  And the night would be wiped away, snuffed out by the light and action and white sneakers jogging, as if there wasn’t really madness and shame and regret; there was just this onwardness, the world heading forward.”

Summary:
Dawn.  An empty road.  A girl in a long, red evening gown pulls her bicycle out of the garage and takes one last look at the tome she’s about to leave.  Mannie is ready to put it all behind her, start fresh in a new city, and finally become that First Class person she was always meant to be.

But there are questions that need to be answered before she can let go.  Questions about her elegant but unstable mother; her brother, Eddie, who’s always overshadowed her; his friend, Harry Jacob, who’s quiet and strong and might just be her boyfriend.  And most of all, questions about how all three were involved that night Mannie’s life broke apart.

Her only clue is an unfamiliar address in the city, written on a scrap of paper found in Eddie’s room.  As Mannie makes her journey, the mystery of this vulnerable, quirky girl is revealed piece by piece in this story about first love, family and putting yourself back together again.

Opinion:
I’ll start this review by letting you know that there isn’t a way to write it without giving away some of the story.  I’ll do my best to avoid as much as I can but if you are interested in getting the full emotional experience (and you should be) then I would say skipping down to the last paragraph of this review will assure that you do so as spoiler free as possible.

How to Make a Bird is a beautifully written but tragic story of how one girl wades through family dysfunction as she attempts to deal with a variety of unimaginable circumstances.  The story showcases Mannie as she takes an emotional journey through her past and present to find much needed acceptance of her mother’s mental instability and then her brother’s surprising death.  Though this journey is one primarily of self-discovery she also has a number of realizations about the role both her family and various friends play in events as well.

What a fantastic voyage it was, well for the reader anyway.  It wasn’t periphery, no no, it jumped right into the sorrowful heart of the matter, directly from the jump.  I knew immediately that Mannie was dealing with a great deal of emotional turmoil but the question really was why.  Enter Murray’s phenomenal writing.  She did an excellent job of both showing and telling Mannie’s story.  The true depth of emotion was endless but was laid out in small pieces. I enjoyed putting piece of the puzzle together until finally the full picture was revealed.  A picture, not of a strong and happy family, but rather one of parents leading separate lives together and children who were vying for any moments of normalcy they could find. Ultimately events that end in tragic circumstances.

Mannie’s endurance was no small feat.  How she chose to deal with her losses (running away temporarily) showed both courage and weakness.  I liked that it was a realistic portrayal of how she wanted to escape everything at home but yet ran to where she would find answers to why things went so wrong.  She was looking for a way to come to terms with everything even though she may not have known it at the outset.  What was amazing is how the two worked together to allow her to come to a place in her life where she felt she could adapt both to her surroundings and the new circumstances in which she was living her life.

I enjoyed that this book was built to be an experience.  The way Murray’s writing fills the pages had me on a roller-coaster of emotion.  As a main character Mannie was as dynamic as a girl can get.  By all outward appearances she is a young girl who is reserved and cautious, but internally she is screaming for freedom.  Freedom from the weight of her mother’s preference for her brother, from the weight of the love she holds for her brother’s best friend (and their neighbor) Harry, and freedom ultimately from the tragedies that befall her family.

Speaking of Harry, the romantic element of the story was a small but profound part of the book.  It was used to demonstrate how a young girl can be on the cusp of an all encompassing love affair and then have it snatched away by an event that is so utterly out of both parties control.  Throughout the story I found myself rooting not just for Mannie but for she and Harry to find a way to be together despite the emotional devastation and guilt between them.

How to Make a Bird is a strongly plotted story with deep character development.  One that focuses on a variety of intense issues that teens could face.  It is a well written and compelling read good for adults and teens both.