Showing Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech

Chasing Redbird is one of Sharon Creech's four novels written for children including the earlier prizewinning Walk Two Moons. In Chasing Redbird Creech's magnificent storytelling evokes the wilderness of the Kentucky countryside where bears and snakes and the thick undergrowth of an overgrown trail both challenges the young 13-year-old Zinny to solitary adventure and gives her the mental and physical space to deal with her repressed feelings about the death of her cousin when she was a toddler and with the very recent death of her dearly beloved mother-surrogate, "Redbird" aunt Jessie. As well as learning to face the painful fact of death, the novel is also about growing up, and coming to terms with the fears and hopes of adolescence and burgeoning sexuality. This is a stirring adventure story at the same time as being a deeply moving one. It is bound to win the hearts of younger teens. --Tamsin Palmer