Learning the Language of Birds: Middle Grade Book is Worth a Look by Theresa Gauthier

 The Secret Language of Birds by Lynne Kelly

I love a good Middle Grade book. Sometimes those books  make a far better read than a thriller, a murder mystery, or some complicated thousand page novel. We’ve all read the books in grade school about kids who’d didn’t quite fit in, or who were considered outsiders—S.E. Hinton comes to mind!—but aside from that being a tried and true trope of the genre, it’s a good starting point for any Middle Grade book. 

When I first came across The Secret Language of Birds by Lynne Kelly, I thought it sounded intriguing, but it was so much more than that. The book starts with a character-defining moment as Nina, a twelve year old girl, finds herself left behind at a rest stop during a family trip. Her family returns soon after appalled that they’d forgotten her, but Nina wonders how they did it, why they didn’t realize she wasn’t in the car. She learns that, some time after they’d left, one of her five siblings had called out, “Where’s Nina?” This threw the parents into turmoil as the dad turns around and phones the rest stop realizing she must still be there.

 Through this, and through Nina’s descriptions of her life, the reader learns that Nina doesn’t quite fit in with friends or family. She feels like everyone else has a rule book that she’s never seen. 

Many kids (and adults) feel that way, of course, but twelve year olds feel they’re the only ones who have ever felt that way. Nina’s time at the rest stop wasn’t wasted, however, and an encounter in the parking lot has awakened an interest in birding. She devours books on the subject, and gets several apps that help her find birds and identify them either by sight or by song.

A comment by her older sister, Sage, makes Nina decide she should spend at least a part of her upcoming summer vacation at her Aunt Audrey’s Summer Camp. 

Aunt Audrey is a relative her family refers to as “an odd duck” or says in exasperated whispers, “Audrey is Audrey,” but Nina has no idea why. Aside from loving the outdoors, she doesn’t seem odd.

It’s surprisingly simple to convince her mother to let her go, but a promise to call if she wants to come home early and a quick tour of the camp before mom and dad leave her there are all that’s required.

Nina loves it at first because she gets there a week before the other campers. It’s just Nina and the staff and the great outdoors. She learns a lot about what birds and other animals might be in the area, and she helps with getting the camp ready for the campers. 

Once they arrive, like any introvert, Nina’s first instinct is to leave or to hide. As the days pass though, Nina discovers something extraordinary. Her birding takes an exciting turn, and as she begins to see that her new friends do like her, she also learns a few things about family, honesty, betrayal, and herself.

The friends she makes this summer—Georgie, Emma, and Ant—call themselves The Oddballs, but they’re no odder than any other preteen girls. 

For fans of Kelly’s 2019 book, Song for a Whale, about a young deaf girl’s connection to a whale whose song can’t be heard by his species, twelve year old tech-genius Iris makes a notable appearance in this book.

Nina’s journey is joyful and even learning the things she finds embarrassing about her past only make her a more well-rounded character. Not perfect, not bad, but far more important than she thinks she is, Nina’s summer is occupied with her birding discovery, and through it she learns some things about her family she didn’t know, as well as beginning to accept that even if she is odd, it’s not such a bad thing to be. 

This was an enjoyable read. The writing is strong, the characters are well-defined and realistic, and the premise invites curiosity and makes education inevitable and great fun. Read it. You’ll be glad you did.