Anything but Ordinary

I cannot tell you how much I adore Birdy. I adore her confidence. I adore her empathy. I adore how much she loves her mother. I just adore her.

On the "About the Author" page, Karen Cushman is quoted as saying, "I grew tired of hearing about kings, princes, generals, presidents. I wanted to know what life was like for ordinary young people in other times." Thus, Birdy was born. I could tell that Ms. Cushman loves history as much as I do, and has an interest in young people as much as I do. She created a character in Birdy that is very relatable to most adolescent girls. She isn't perfect. She is emotional. She is stubborn. She is easily provoked. But she is also kind, especially to animals. She is fiercely loyal to her friends. She is brave, and honest, and thoughtful.

Throughout the last half of the book, she tried desperately to find a way out of marrying Shaggy Beard, the man her father had arranged for her to marry. She ranted and raved at her father and considered running away to be a minstrel or a puppeteer, but nothing changed. She refused to consent and her father refused to back down. Shaggy Beard had sent her gifts of a silver toothpick, a headdress, a sewing kit, and a pouch of silver, but she would not spend it because that would mean she had promised to marry him. She refused to spend the money until she went to the fair.

Before you jump to conclusions, however, she did not spend it on fabric or necklaces. She happened upon a performing bear who was moth-eaten and scrawny. His performance was bad enough that his owner announced that he planned to set a pack of dogs against the bear to see who which would be victorious. While many of the onlookers saw this as entertainment, Birdy only saw the cruelty. She struggled within herself, but finally decided that the only course of action was to sacrifice her pouch of silver - and her own freedom and happiness - for the life of the bear.

 I enjoyed watching, in my mind's eye, her evolution and growth. Her perspective changed, particularly regarding her brother, Robert, and her father. Throughout the book, Birdy couldn't stand  her father. When her mother talked about how wonderful her father was, Birdy couldn't understand what her mother saw in him. In the end, though, Birdy is in awe of how her father behaved toward her mother when she was ill, and even looked at him as though he'd performed a miracle when her mother survived.

As for Robert, it was he who rode to an abbey, where the abbess kept a menagerie, to find a home for Birdy's bear. Birdy was shocked and confused and I can imagine that, while she had mixed feelings,  she had some measure of gratitude toward the brother for whom she had so little regard.

In her very last journal entry, Birdy chronicles her salvation. On the day that Shaggy Beard's representatives were set to arrive to take her to him, they instead arrive to tell her father that Shaggy Beard has died. Instead, Birdy is to marry Shaggy Beard's son, Stephen. Stephen is closer to Birdy's age, and although she only met him once, she remembers him as being "young and clean, loves to learn, and is not Shaggy Beard." She decides that she is prepared to learn to love him. Rather than feeling doomed to a future she cannot control, she feels as though the world is full of possibilities and anticipates a future that promises happiness.

While Karen Cushman said that she wanted to know what life was like for ordinary people, I would suggest that Birdy is anything but ordinary. She is beautifully, wonderfully extraordinary.

Who will I meet next?
I'll keep you posted.