Free as a Bird Book

For me this one is between three and four stars, but still more toward three.
OK, in writing my review, I realized in good conscience I could not let my rating stand at three stars. It is a four-star book (I think my emotional responses of sadness and anger on behalf of Ruby Jean and those like her initially coloured my rating downward, when indeed these emotional responses are further evidence that I should have bumped my rating upward). So, four stars it is.

Overall, I thought this book is a a solid thoughtful, and thought-provoking read. It is also an Important Book, covering a topic that we Canadians have too long ignored and that we need to be educated more about. I think McMurchy-Barber did a solid job of covering the topic and of telling the story in the voice of the people who had the misfortune to be imprisoned at Woodlands.

I think that choosing to write the story in the voice of Ruby Jean, a girl with Down's Syndrome who was abandoned at Woodlands by her mother, was overall an effective strategy to really get into how people felt living at Woodlands. I appreciated too that McMurchy-Barber also used sources such as interviews with these people to give a solid basis for her tale. For me, one of the drawbacks, however, was that by making the whole story in Ruby Jean's voice, McMurchy-Barber was also a bit trapped by Ruby Jean's voice. By this point I mean that there was information McMurchy-Barber wanted to convey about the conditions in the institution and the behaviours and attitudes of the staff there. Because the book was all in Ruby Jean's voice, the author was then force to have her character recite information that seemed much deeper and more complex than Ruby Jean would have been capable of conveying. I think sensing this McMurchy-Barber finished this parts with Ruby Jean saying 'but, of course, I could not understand it all because I am not too smart'. But, these steps out of character for Ruby Jean were jarring to me and the 'but I could not understand it' disclaimers felt too much like a 'but then I woke up and it was all a dream' unsatisfying ending.

All of that said, however, I think part of the "problem" is that McMurchy-Barber did such a wonderful job of creating Ruby Jean's character and voice it was that much more noticeable when the character stepped out of character. To soften that not-so-great compliment (and I really did meant as a compliment), I will honestly say that I liked Ruby Jean and thought McMurchy-Barber did a fantastic job of creating an emotionally deep, complex, thoughtful character in Ruby Jean.

I also think that McMurchy-Barber did a wonderful job of creating a supporting cast of characters, all of whom had their own thoughts and feelings and behaviours. And, I appreciated that even when creating the unlikeable characters McMurchy-Barber showed their humanity. Some, as in real life, truly were horrible people, others undertook terrible behaviours (which were still adamantly wrong) but did so from their own misguided sense of what needed to be done and/or their own broken dysfunctional responses to the world.

I also think that McMurchy-Barber did a wonderful job of discussing an incredibly complex and difficult situation full of incredible wrong-doing and of capturing all of the nuances of what happened in a way that was real, relatable, and engaging. Additionally, this author managed all of that for a middle-school-aged audience without ever watering it down or pulling any punches on it. No gorey details, but enough to understand what was going on, and the abuses being inflicted on the undeserving inmates.

Overall, a solid read on a difficult topic that was written by an author with a deft hand for character, emotion, setting, and situation, and audience. I will look up other work by this writer.