Chasing Redbird - Hardcover

Creech, Sharon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060269871 ISBN 13: 9780060269876

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1997

Synopsis

It started out as an ordinary summer. But the minute thirteen-year-old Zinny covered the old, overgrown trail that ran through the woods behind her family's house, she realized that things were about to change.

Right from the start, Zinny knew that uncovering the trail would be more than just a summer project. It was her chance to finally make people notice her, and to have a place she could call her very own. But more than that, Zinny knew that the trail somehow held the key to all kinds of questions. And that -- the only way to understand her family, her Aunt Jessie's death, and herself, was to find out where it went.

From the author of the Newbery Medal-winning Walk Two Moons, here is an intricately woven tale of a young girl who sets out in search of her place in the world -- and discovers it in her own backyard.

About this title

About the Author

Sharon Creech has written twenty books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.

Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, “lured there by our grandchildren,” Creech says. “Moo was inspired by our mutual love of Maine and by our granddaughter’s involvement in a local 4-H program. We have all been enchanted with the charms of cows.”

www.sharoncreech.com

Reviews

Grade 5-8. Creech returns to Appalachia in this story of 13-year-old Zinny, a middle child struggling to find and accept herself plus look for a way to come to terms with the death of her beloved Aunt Jessie and her feelings of responsibility for that death. The novel revolves around an old overgrown trail that Zinny discovers and proceeds to resurrect. Meanwhile, her admirer, Jake Boone, is persistent about bringing her presents yet fails to convince her he is not really after her sister, May, as so many other boys have been. Uncle Nate seems to be losing touch with reality after his wife's death, and guilt rooted in the past resurfaces to confuse Zinny, who comes to feel that the trail she is uncovering will somehow bring sanity, safety, and a sense of identity to her life. It does, but in ways she could never have predicted. The journey for Zinny and readers is intriguing, delightful, and touching. Reminiscent of many novels about the rural South with wonderfully quirky characters and a focus on the setting of the natural world, this story seems much fresher and tangibly more in the present than most. Not as complex as Creech's Walk Two Moons (HarperCollins, 1994), there is still plenty to discuss such as the symbolism of the redbird in the title and the ethical issues surrounding Jake's gifts and Zinny's mistrust of his affection for her.?Carol A. Edwards, Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A teenager lost in the maelstrom of her large Virginia- mountain family devises a personal walkabout when she takes on the project of single-handedly rehabilitating a 20-mile-long wilderness trail. Until recently, Zinnia Taylor, 13, spent a lot of time in the ``Quiet Zone'' of Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate's house next door. But Aunt Jessie has died, and Uncle Nate remains bereft. Calling her his Redbird, he spends most of his time chasing through the woods, believing he is in pursuit of her. Adding to Uncle Nate and Zinny's burden is the death of her cousin, Rose, who died of the whooping cough when she and Zinny were both four. Amidst this pain, Zinny is looking for a place to call her own, for a sense of who she is, and for someone--anyone--who cares about her ``most.'' The plotting can become capricious in the extreme, but Creech (Pleasing the Ghost, 1996, etc.) crams her novel full of wonderful characters, proficient dialogue, bracing descriptions, and a merry use of language. A bundle of contradictions, Zinny is at her prickly, individualistic best when fending off the overtures of 16-year-old Jake Boone, whom she (mistakenly) suspects of using her to get to her older sister. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 6^-9. Thirteen-year-old Zinny Taylor is on a mission. She wants to clear the overgrown trail that begins on her family farm and strew it with zinnias. She wants to do something important, and she wants to do it alone. Perhaps if she can complete her project, she will also untangle family secrets about her dead aunt and cousin and the ghost her uncle sees and will come to understand the passion a local boy has forher--or is it for her sister? Creech's work is ambitious, and in some aspects, she succeeds admirably. The characterizations are strong, especially the subtly shaded Zinny, who has her feet in both girlhood and adolescence, the past and the present. But Zinny's trailblazing as a metaphor for her perilous journey of self-discovery is overdone and, at times, flat-out unbelievable (Zinny's parents actually allow her to spend weeks camping alone in the Kentucky hills). A choice for better readers, who will find much to admire and who have the ability to move through the book's more ponderous moments. Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060269871
• ISBN 13: 9780060269876
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Burckhardt Marc
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272