Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman (audiobook)

Bibliographic Information:
Cushman, K. (1996). Catherine, Called Birdy. Read by Jenny Sterlin. Recorded Books. ISBN-10: 0788795201


Book Awards:
1995 Newbery Honor Book
1994 Golden Kite Award
1995 Notable Children's Book from American Library Association (ALA)
1995 Best Book for Young Adults (ALA)

Plot Summary:
Catherine (called Birdy) is the fourteen year old daughter of a minor lord during the Middle Ages. She hates her father, and spends most of her time and energy thwarting his marriage plans for her. She hates the duties of a woman of her class (spinning, embroidery, making soap, mending clothes, and sitting quietly), and spends the remainder of her time and energy sneaking away to play with her friend the goat boy. She has three brothers, only one of whom she likes, and her mother is weak continual pregnancies and miscarriages. When her father contracts her engagement to the greasiest, foulest, oldest man she's ever seen, it will take all of Birdy's considerable talents for mayhem to escape her fate.

Critical Evaluation:
Birdy writes in her diary every day, and the entries comprise the entirety of the book. She is not, at first, a likable character, but she has a sort of train-wreck fascination that holds the reader easily. The author gives us a sense of everyday life in the Middle Ages completely unattainable by reading a history book. Jenny Sterlin's voice brings Birdy to life in all of her adolescent drama and trauma: she is sulky, snarly, mulish, and defiant. Life in the Middle Ages was not for wimps, however, and Birdy faces real adversity during the year she writes in her diary. Sterlin's voice and Cushman's words show the reader how Birdy grows up that year, and turns her into a person anyone would be proud to know (although not, perhaps, in the ways one might expect).

Reader's Annotation:
Can Birdy escape being sold in marriage to some horrible man of her heartless father's choosing?

About the Author:
Karen Cushman was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 4, 1941. She received her M.A.'s in Human Behavior and Museum Studies. She also has two Masters degrees from Stanford University. She wrote Catherine, Called Birdy (her first book) when she was fifty. She has since written five more, one of which won the Newbery Medal. She is currently the Assistant Director of Museum Studies Department at John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco.

Genre:
Historical Fiction

Curriculum Ties:
History
Suffrage

Booktalking Ideas:
How would you scare away unwanted suitors that your dad arranged?

Interest Age:
10+

Challenge Issues:
None
However, if a challenge should occur,
Read the book! Urge parent to do the same. Cite awards and reviews. Refer to collection development policy. If dispute continues, parents' wishes regarding their own children will be respected.

Reason Included:
The cover with its Newbery Honor on it caught my eye as I perused audiobooks. If ever a book deserved it, this one did!