This is a beautifully written modern day realistic magical fairy tale. Twig, a twelve year old girl, is the narrator of the story. She tells of her family who lives in isolation in the small town of Sidwell, Massachusetts. Her family has been cursed and so her mother keeps to herself and keeps her family invisible. Twig's brother has been passed with the curse and has wings and is able to fly. No one in town knows about him. However, the town has tales about a monster that flies around their community at night. They even sell tee-shirts to local tourists. Because of some vandalism that begins to happen in their town, some believe it is time to go and hunt and kill the monster. Twig realizes that this hunt could be devastating to her brother's life. She becomes friends with the new girl who moves next door and they begin to play detective to solve the vandalism mystery in their town. Romance and friendship and forgiveness are big themes that play into this story.
As I was reading this book, I thought it reminded me of the movie Practical Magic. As I investigated the author, I found out that Alice Hoffman wrote the story for the movie too. Of course, Sandra Bullock became the mother character in Nightbird for me!
Again, the writing is lovely and fun to read. I would have to caution kids that it has witchcraft in it since I know some students and parents don't like to read novels with witchcraft. Since it is written in a realistic genre, it may feel less fairy tale like.
I enjoyed the book and give it a 4 out of a 4. It think it would be appropriate for 5th grade and up and for the Division 2 list. It is not a book suitable for all readers and would appeal to a girl reader. The reading level is 5.4
- Age Range: 10 and up
- Grade Level: 5 and up
- Lexile Measure: 0840
- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Yearling (March 8, 2016)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385389612
- ISBN-13: 978-0385389617
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