Birdie's Bargain

September 1, 2021
Can a person really make a deal with God? When her father's National Guard unit gets deployed overseas for the third time, and 10-year-old Birdie, her mom, and her 6-month-old brother, Billy, have to move into her grandmother's small house, Birdie is so upset she refuses to tell her father goodbye. Overcome with guilt after he leaves, she thinks back to the lessons she learned at the Bible camp her parents used as child care the summer before and promises God that she'll behave and be a witness if he keeps her father safe. Then God seems to lead her to Alicia Marie, a troubled and troublesome girl in her new class who demands more than Birdie wants to give. Birdie does her best to live up to her promise to God--but Daddy is injured anyhow. Paterson's writing is smooth and nuanced, but this novel lacks a defined narrative arc. Birdie learns to see the truth behind Alicia's lies and exaggerations, but then Alicia, the most fully realized character, drops out of the story entirely. Birdie is reassured when she visits her father at Walter Reed hospital after he is flown back to the U.S. for treatment. She is also comforted some months later when her grandmother suggests a kinder version of God, but she doesn't exhibit much growth on her own. Characters default to White. Lovely prose and an intriguing family situation but insufficient character development. (Fiction. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 6, 2021
Ten-year-old Birdie, terrified for the safety of her Vermont National Guard father when he is called to Iraq for his third deployment, strikes a bargain with God: she’ll “be a witness in the world if...you will just keep my Daddy safe.” Challenges abound for Birdie, beyond fearing for her dad’s safety: financial difficulties have forced her mother and baby brother to move in with her grandmother, and she is claimed for friendship by unpleasant classmate Alicia Marie Suggs, who frequently exaggerates. Struggling to follow the tenets of her beliefs, timid Birdie allows Alicia to monopolize her time and passively accepts Alicia’s abuse, until a family emergency causes a crisis of faith. Other than disagreeable Alicia, who vanishes midway through the book, poorly fleshed-out characters (all presumed white) populate what is more a snapshot of a family—and tween’s—turmoil than a fully constructed plotline. Though frequently unfocused, Newbery Medalist Paterson’s novel respects Birdie’s friendship struggles and offers lyrical turns of phrase: upon Birdie’s seeing a gleaming tree encased in ice, “The thought came to her that the tree was singing, singing a hymn to the sun.” Ages 9–12.

October 1, 2021
Grades 4-6 Birdie isn't happy with the way her life has been going. Her dad has been called up again to serve in Iraq, and living at her Gran's is an adjustment. Her room is small, Mom is working all the time, and Gran is occupied with baby Billy. To top it off, her only "friend" is bossy Alicia. Making a bargain to protect her father seems logical to Birdie, but what if the bargain doesn't work out like she hopes? And is revealing Alicia's troubled home life a betrayal, or is it the right thing to do? The complexities of belief play a major role in how Birdie sees the world, but as she learns through patient Gran, perhaps Birdie's rigid views, learned at Bible camp, aren't the only way to approach faith. Paterson, the beloved author of classics like Bridge to Terabithia, has once again written a book that will appeal to thoughtful readers interested in a good story as well as bigger ideas.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2021
Paterson's latest novel opens with Birdie (a nickname for Elizabeth) crying as her mother drives her father to the airport for his third deployment to Iraq. It's significant that Birdie is wearing an "I [heart] Jesus" shirt, because the bargain referred to in the book's title is one she has made with God to keep her father safe: "I'll stop acting like a jerk, if you'll start acting like God and take care of us for a change." To cut costs, the family moves in with Gran. The first person Birdie meets is fellow fifth-grader Alice Suggs, who comes on very aggressively, grabbing her arm and bragging that her father outranks Birdie's. Birdie doesn't enjoy being with her, but she remembers the Bible verse "Be ye kind, one to another" and continues to go to Alice's house and eat lunch with her at school. When Birdie's father is seriously injured in Iraq, she feels shocked and betrayed: "She was mad, so mad, mad at God, at Mom, at Gran, even at Daddy, at everything in the whole stinking world." As the protagonist copes first with the move and then with her crisis of faith, Paterson, using skillful omniscient narration, rounds the story with specific physical details and depicts the character's emotional arc with authenticity and empathy. Susan Dove Lempke

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2021
Paterson's latest novel opens with Birdie (a nickname for Elizabeth) crying as her mother drives her father to the airport for his third deployment to Iraq. It's significant that Birdie is wearing an "I �heart] Jesus" shirt, because the bargain referred to in the book's title is one she has made with God to keep her father safe: "I'll stop acting like a jerk, if you'll start acting like God and take care of us for a change." To cut costs, the family moves in with Gran. The first person Birdie meets is fellow fifth-grader Alice Suggs, who comes on very aggressively, grabbing her arm and bragging that her father outranks Birdie's. Birdie doesn't enjoy being with her, but she remembers the Bible verse "Be ye kind, one to another" and continues to go to Alice's house and eat lunch with her at school. When Birdie's father is seriously injured in Iraq, she feels shocked and betrayed: "She was mad, so mad, mad at God, at Mom, at Gran, even at Daddy, at everything in the whole stinking world." As the protagonist copes first with the move and then with her crisis of faith, Paterson, using skillful omniscient narration, rounds the story with specific physical details and depicts the character's emotional arc with authenticity and empathy.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)