Jennifer M. (Kaydence) reviewed on + 380 more book reviews
Summary: D's mother has passed away, leaving him an orphan. Luckily, D is very intelligent from being home schooled as a child, so he is placed into foster care quickly. D and his foster mother get along very well. He is on his best behavior, and he does enjoy being with her. However, his life changes slightly when a new baby comes into her care. D is left to his own devices a bit more and has more freedom. At school, D offers to help one of the basketball stars, Hakeem, in math at the library. After his initial tutoring session, there is a small kinship formed between the two of them. Then, the popular hot girl, Nyla, asks D to sit with her group at lunch. She finds out that D is interested in birds, so she invites herself along on a bird watching expedition. After such a busy day, D goes to the park on his way home. While there, he finds a bird that has been trapped. He sets her free and finds out that this is no ordinary bird. This bird speaks to him and says that she is from another universe and D is her host. The next day, Hakeem, Nyla, and D go on their bird watching excursion. This seemingly innocent adventure turns perilous when beings from another realm try to capture them and D's bird.
My thoughts: This was interesting and had some historical aspects that were fun to read about. I enjoyed the budding friendship, and the general plot line of the book. I felt that it was lacking a lot of description though. The characters never really came alive to me because I didn't have any real back story on any of them, including D. There is not a lot of development that makes you feel for his loss or gain of two friends. Even the adventure of otherworldly beings was glanced over. I kept wanting to know more. I was craving details and never really getting them. This may have been by design because the novel is meant for a young audience, but I've read several middle grade novels that did not leave me feeling this way. I gave the story to one of my reluctant readers because it is fairly short, but he did not read much past the first ten pages before he told me that it was boring and went to find another book. I love the premise, but wish that I didn't leave feeling like I didn't care one way or the other about the characters and situations.
My thoughts: This was interesting and had some historical aspects that were fun to read about. I enjoyed the budding friendship, and the general plot line of the book. I felt that it was lacking a lot of description though. The characters never really came alive to me because I didn't have any real back story on any of them, including D. There is not a lot of development that makes you feel for his loss or gain of two friends. Even the adventure of otherworldly beings was glanced over. I kept wanting to know more. I was craving details and never really getting them. This may have been by design because the novel is meant for a young audience, but I've read several middle grade novels that did not leave me feeling this way. I gave the story to one of my reluctant readers because it is fairly short, but he did not read much past the first ten pages before he told me that it was boring and went to find another book. I love the premise, but wish that I didn't leave feeling like I didn't care one way or the other about the characters and situations.
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