Bird Book

I'm honestly not really sure what I thought of this book. It was short and easy to read, but I had a hard time getting into the characters and the plot. It's about a 13 year old girl, just when she thinks she has a family her step dad, Cecil, leaves them. It starts off after he has left her and her mother, but she is certain that if she goes after him, he will return to them. So she lives as a runaway child and makes a friend with the family her Cecil is staying with. Ethan is the nephew of Cecil and finds Bird hiding out behind their farmhouse, he has been sick and just got a new heart and is healthier than he's ever been, Bird becomes his first friend. As a reader you automatically sympathize with her, but if from another perspective we might find it strange that this young girl is spying on this family and using their shower and eating their food, while they attend church. After Bird leaves the farmhouse she meets a boy named Jay who is getting over the death of his brother. Each of the characters is young and trying to survive something more difficult than a child should bear.
Each chapter is from a different character's perspective, but by the end of the book, each of the characters are tied together somehow. And Bird returns home, realizing that home with her mother is the only place she wants to be. Her nick name is Bird and I think that it is a perfect symbol of her. She leaves the nest to travel to make things better, but she finds that home is the only place she wants to be and so the bird returns to the nest. She found her wings and saw the world, but returned home. It's great for young readers because so many young teens are dealing with issues beyond their years, and Bird teaches them that they can handle anything, there is always a place to turn to, finding your home is really, finding who loves you, and for some it's where it always was, but it takes leaving it to see it.