A Bird Will Soar by Alison Green Myers: A Review by Veronica Jorge
February 22, 2024 by Veronica Jorge in category Book Reviews by Veronica Jorge, Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as A bird will soar, Alison Green Myers, books reviewed by Veronica jorge, Schneider Family Book Award
A BIRD WILL SOAR
ALISON GREEN MYERS
Schneider Family Book Award
Dutton Children’s Books, 2021
ISBN 978-0-593-32567-4
Once in a while you come across a book, that after reading it, makes you pause and think, even marvel because you’ve encountered life from an entirely new perspective.
Alison Green Myers’, debut novel, A Bird Will Soar, is such a book. And a recipient of the prestigious Schneider Family Book Award given by the American Library Association for excellence in the portrayal of the disability experience in literature for youth.
Axel, an autistic boy, feels most at home in nature. It is his peaceful place to think and make sense of his parents, and the garden of people in his life that grow up around him and become family. Axel also discovers that he can learn about people by bird watching. His favorite is the eagle. When family calls, the eagle focuses on the nest and never abandons it. So, he wonders why his father left. The eagle also knows just how high it can fly. Something Axel wishes his mother would let him discover about himself: to trust him and give him room to navigate using his own intuition and instincts.
When a tornado hits, Axel’s predictable world is turned upside down. His home is damaged and uninhabitable, locking him out of the safe space of his own room. Fallen trees have made his beloved woods unsafe to visit. The eagle’s nest with its young that he has been observing has been blown out of the tree by the fierce winds. And his estranged father has returned home. All of Axel’s knowledge and hopes are put to the test.
Can he care about his father as much as he does about the eagle? “To feel something so strongly for another living thing.” (page 93). Will his gut instincts lead him to make the right choices and decisions? Will he finally learn just how high he can fly?
A Bird Will Soar is insightful and captivating. Alison Green Myers masterfully takes us into Axel’s mind revealing this unique character’s thoughts, feelings, and coping mechanisms. The book is also a beautiful exploration of the symbiotic and beneficial relationship between humans and nature.
If you read and were intrigued and entertained by the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, you will be enthralled and elevated by, A Bird Will Soar.
Buy the book and start soaring!
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on March 22nd!
Books Reviewed by Veronica Jorge
Lost and Found by Veronica Jorge
January 22, 2024 by Veronica Jorge in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as flowers, Friendship, poetry, Spring, Winter
Winter. Lifeless, asleep, dead. All is gone. Lost. Until the last frost melts away. A sprig peeks up through the earth and winks at the sky. Buds and flowers appear bearing gifts of fruitfulness. Year after year, spring arrives; ever the same, dependable, faithful. Life renews. Time passes. Distance separates. But vibrant colors burst through the faded tapestry of memories. Friendship. Never-ending, never-waning. Ever alive.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on February 22nd!
Books Reviewed by Veronica
A Year Is An Ocean by Veronica Jorge
December 22, 2023 by Veronica Jorge in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as beginnings and endings, End of year, Veronica Jorge
As the year draws to an end, preparing to close its final chapter, I think of the beach.
It might seem perfectly normal to those of you living in sunny climates, or to snow bunnies hastening away from the cold. But to those of us in areas that have already seen our first snow, it might sound strange.
To me, beginnings and endings can be like the ocean.
Like a rushing tide, every New Year, we rush toward new goals and hopes.
Sometimes shrinking back in fear, or drifting away into distant doubts and difficult memories.
Sturdy ocean rocks, like strong foundations, enable us to stand secure. And even walk on water, like faithful friends that make us believe we can do the impossible.
Our footprints in the sand are washed away like our past failings and errors. While a merciful new year, grants us another chance at life.
The 1960s song, Try to Remember, written by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, plays in my mind. Emotion tightens my throat. My heart forms a prayer for the coming year.
May no one weep. Not even the willow.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on January 22, 2024!
0 3 Read moreNot What It Seems by Veronica Jorge
November 22, 2023 by Veronica Jorge in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as Memories, poem, Thanksgiving
Not What It Seems
by
Veronica Jorge
Memories swirl in the air around my head.
Light flashes and flickers illuminating my thoughts.
Emotions spread a warm blanket over me and shield me
from the wind.
Joy dances around my feet.
Worries scurry away.
It seems I’m just raking leaves.
But I’m really counting my blessings, one by one.
See you next time on December 22nd!
Discovering Authors, Old & New
October 22, 2023 by Veronica Jorge in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as Pearl S. Buck, Pearl S. Buck Historic House, Perkasie PA, The Good Earth, Veronica Jorge
Pearl S. Buck has always been one of my favorite authors. Most know her 1931 novel, The Good Earth, and film of the same name, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. And in 1938, she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for her depictions of China, where she lived with her missionary parents.
A prolific author, she wrote more than forty novels, over twenty works of non-fiction, an astounding bibliography of short stories, and stories for children. Even a cookbook!
And while she’s famous to us today, her male contemporaries were anything but supportive, often disparaging her writing skills. This prompted her to write other works under the pen-name, John Sedges, which were well received and lauded. Thus, proving her point that the hostility was against her as a woman, and had nothing to do with her literary abilities.
So, this past summer, I treated myself to a visit to the Pearl S. Buck Historic House in Perkasie, PA.
I wanted to learn more about this author. Instead, I discovered a remarkable woman whom I admired all the more. She was an accomplished pianist. She wrote about and worked tirelessly for women’s rights, civil rights, and for the education and improvement of women’s and children’s lives all over the world. She was also one of the first to write about and champion the cause of the handicapped, chronicling her own personal experience in The Child Who Never Grew, a heart-breaking memoir of her daughter’s rare developmental disorder, originally published in 1950. (Reprint, 2017, ISBN 978-1504047968).
Her foundation continues to advocate for all of these causes today.
And just when I thought the trip couldn’t get any better, I learned that the Pearl S. Buck Historic House also offers writing courses and has its own press center to help authors self-publish.
In keeping with Buck’s work toward empowering women, I purchased the following two books in the gift shop.
A Rose in a Ditch, by Julie Henning, (Pearl S. Buck Writing Center Press, 2019, ISBN 978-1-704786-438), who writes about her life in South Korea and being rescued and then raised in the U.S. by Pearl Buck as her own daughter.
And, Where the Stork Flies, by Linda C. Wisniewski, (Sand Hill Review Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1-949534-16-0). Struggling with relationship issues with her husband and her daughter, a librarian encounters a time portal and a Polish peasant fleeing her own unhappy marriage. Together, with a little magic help, they get their lives back on track.
And guess what? Turns out Wisniewski and I have several writer friends in common. How great is that!
I wish you all new and inspiring learnings and discoveries in your reading and writing journeys.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on November 22nd!
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