Chasing Redbird Book

Our local library children's book club selected this book for their June 2016 discussion. It's a fast read and really grabs at the reader's heart strings.

I liked that Sharon Creech weaves familiar names and places from other stories like Walk Two Moons and Absolutely Normal Chaos.

The tale is sweet, yet melancholy. It is filled with longing and remembrance and even the hurt from missing our loved ones. But it also really shows how we all need some solitude at times and that the quiet can help show us what is important in our lives.

There is a mystical nature to the story, a sense that those who have passed are watching over us. And that in death, we are reunited with the loved ones who have passed before us.

It's a nice sentiment and brings comfort to the characters in the story. But I find it interesting that it is only the oldest and the youngest who truly embrace these thoughts. The rest are merely caught up in life.

Overall, it's a fast and engaging read; I took longer than I expected to finish it, but I was only able to carve out short periods to read it. I like that it forced me to savor the story and really think about the ways in which the characters are connected. I find it amusing that Zinny has to leave on her adventure in order for her family to really take notice of her.

interesting quotes:

"It was just that there didn't seem to be a lot to say that someone wasn't already saying. I liked listening." (p. 7)

"At home, I'd skulk around, trying not to be noticed, and yet hoping, wishing, praying to be noticed." (p. 48)

"Soon I noticed the white specks of stars, but still they weren't draped on a black sky, still it wasn't dark. And although I watched intently, I did not see the moment of dark, and I wondered if maybe it wasn't a moment at all." (p. 157)

"I was always in a muddle about time. It didn't seem like a series of days, but one stretch of time, with light and dark blending into each other. Time went on and on; it didn't start and stop, as I had thought. If time didn't start and stop, I thought, maybe life didn't either. Maybe it just went on and on." (p. 164)

"'Til Next We Meet." (p. 232)