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Summary
Summary
Bestselling author Alice Hoffman's bewitching Nightbird is perfect for ages 10-13: love and friendship empower a lonely girl to embrace her uniqueness and discover her strengths.
Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumored to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig's family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It's time to break the spell.
Praise
Nominated for:
The Great Stone Face Award (NH)
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award (Illinois)
The Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (Maryland)
"Hoffman reminds us that there are secrets everywhere . . . Nightbird soars."
-- The New York Times
"Alice Hoffman has a gift for melding magic and realism in a way that makes nearly anything seem possible."
-- Shelf Awareness, Starred
"The mix of romance and magic is irresistible."
-- Kirkus Reviews
What Other Authors Are Saying
"I love the way Alice Hoffman creates the most ordinary people and then turns their lives magical. . . . [ Nightbird ] is like reentering a wonderful dream that you vaguely remember." --Lois Lowry, two-time Newbery Medal-winning author of The Giver
Author Notes
Alice Hoffman, an American novelist and screenwriter, was born in New York City on March 16, 1952. She earned a B.A. from Adelphi University in 1973 and an M.A. in creative writing from Stanford University in 1975 before publishing her first novel, Property Of, in 1977.
Known for blending realism and fantasy in her fiction, she often creates richly detailed characters who live on society's margins and places them in extraordinary situations as she did with At Risk, her 1988 novel about the AIDS crisis. Her other works include The Drowning Season, Seventh Heaven, The River King, Blue Diary, The Probable Future, The Ice Queen, and The Dovekeepers. Her book, The Third Angel, won the 2008 New England Booksellers' Award for fiction. Two of her novels, Practical Magic and Aquamarine, were made into films. She has also written numerous screenplays, including adaptations of her own novels and the original screenplay, Independence Day. Her title's The Museum of Exteaordinary Things, The Marriage of Opposites, Seventh Heaven, and The Rules of Magic made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in a realm where enchantment intermingles with everyday realities, Hoffman's story centers on 12-year-old Twig Fowler, her baker mother, and her older brother, who all keep to themselves in their farmhouse in Sidwell, Mass. Twig's mother is said to have supernatural cooking skills, but the real magic is the curse that hits the males of the Fowler family-they grow wings. Twig's brother, James, flies at night, befriends birds, and no one in town knows he exists because the family fears their reaction. Twig remains friendless until she meets new neighbor Julia Hall and her older sister, who might be able to help reverse the spell plaguing the Fowler family. Reader Lamia has perfected the character of Twig, who sounds shy and youthful as the story unfolds. The adult characters come alive as well, each with such a distinct voice that it's easy to forget there's only one person performing. Between Hoffman's lovely prose and Lamia's terrific performance, this is a delightful audiobook that can be enjoyed by the entire family. Ages 10-up. A Random/Lamb hardcover. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Twig Fowler and her mother keep to themselves so that their neighbors in Sidwell, Massachusetts, wont discover their secret: Twigs older brother James has wings, thanks to a generations-old curse laid upon all Fowler men by Agnes Early, the Witch of Sidwell. Against their mothers warnings, Twig befriends Julia, a descendent of Agnes Early, and James falls in love with Julias sister Agate, relationships that will ultimately bring secrets to light. Hoffman creates a witchy small-town New England setting but populates it with realistic characters such as twelve-year-old Twig, who desperately wants a friend. Twigs entirely mundane broken arm, incurred in a fall from a tree, contrasts nicely with Jamess wings, which allow him to fly but keep him from living a normal life. The tone, mystical but not too dark, makes this a good choice for readers who want to imagine just a bit of magic in their lives. shoshana flax (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Twig and her mom live in tiny Sidwell, a wooded New England town with a witchy history. When her reclusive mom isn't baking one-of-a-kind pies from their orchard's apples, she is concealing Twig's brother, James, who sports a pair of black feathery wings, courtesy of a curse placed on their family by the Sidwell witch centuries ago. Rumors are swirling about the Sidwell Monster, and Twig and her mother fear that James is in danger, since he has been spotted winging around town in the middle of the night. When a new family moves in next door (direct descendants of the witch who cursed Twig's family), Twig cannot resist her new neighbor Julia's friendship, and James cannot resist Julia's enchanting sister, Agate. Soon Twig and her new friend realize that James and Agate are heading down the same path that led Julia's ancestor to curse Twig's, and they set out to undo the curse. Best-selling Hoffman offers a quiet, gentle fantasy where crossroads and moonlight have magical uses, and friendship and determination can heal centuries-old wounds. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With a handful of best-sellers under her belt, it's no surprise that Hoffman's publisher is planning a big campaign for this one, too.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
ALICE HOFFMAN'S LATEST book Comes loaded with enchantments. Some are explicitly fantastical: a curse from a brokenhearted witch with real-world consequences, a winged boy who learns the language of birds. But some of the magic is of a subtler kind - hours that seem to mysteriously vanish in shared conversation, loneliness transformed by the alchemy of new friendship. "Nightbird" takes place in Sidwell, a fictional Massachusetts town known for a special variety of apples called Pink, black owls and a Mothman-like monster frequently spotted above its rooftops. A young girl named Twig must navigate the secret spaces between daily life in Sidwell and the magic at the heart of its local legends. She is a Fowler, the youngest child of a family cursed long ago by Agnes Early, the Witch of Sidwell. For 200 years, every Fowler son has been born with wings, and so Twig is forced to keep the secret of her handsome older brother, James, who is confined to the attic by day, but takes to the skies and freedom once the sun goes down. In an attempt to keep unwanted attention from James, Twig and her mother have thoroughly isolated themselves, turning down invitations and earning a reputation as snobs and eccentrics. But a series of thefts and cryptic graffiti scrawled around Sidwell have left the townspeople jumpy and wondering if the monster is more dangerous nuisance than benign tourist draw. Things are further complicated when descendants of the Witch of Sidwell return to occupy the rundown cottage next to Twig's home, and the destinies of the Fowlers and the Earlys become entangled once more. As friendship blooms between Twig and Julia Early and a romance develops between James and Julia's sister, Agate, they set out to solve the mystery of the minor crimes plaguing their town, and at the same time find a way to undo the curse so that James can live a normal life with the girl he loves. Hoffman has a beautiful way of throwing open a door on possibility so that the reader begins to see magic everywhere. A drought that devours every lake but one may be unfortunate weather or the work of a witch. A recipe for Pink apple pie, passed down from mother to daughter, takes on the quality of incantation. When Twig sits down for a cup of tea with the town historian, she tells us: "After I took a few sips, I felt a funny tingle in my throat. It almost felt as if something had been unlocked inside me." Is there magic in Miss Larch's black orchid brew? Or are the comfort of ritual and our need to confide in one another enough to compel us to speak the truth? Hoffman casts her spell over Sidwell too. It is a place out of time. There are no signs of cellphones or texting, no Google searches or Wikipedia. Research must be done in libraries or by speaking to friendly adults who are almost uniformly helpful if occasionally prone to talking in riddles. Sidwell seems gentler than the settings of Hoffman's works for adults, but still buzzes with charm and mystery: Groups of gossiping men gather at the hardware store, sweet-smelling orchards burst with apples and lush woods - the nesting place of tiny black owls - offer solace or scares depending on which way the light falls. Twig's internal landscape is illuminated with equal beauty: "I just stored up my hurts," she says, "as if they were a tower made of fallen stars." Her loneliness is lyrical but grounded in moments of acute honesty. At times, though, the enchantment wavers. The coincidences of found diaries and scraps of paper seem less fated than convenient. Deep familial rifts are healed seemingly without scars, and characters make abrupt emotional leaps that jar after the story's steady buildup. The actual mechanics of the curse afflicting the Fowlers is also oddly tame for the transformations that result. This is a surprise from Hoffman, who excels at delineating the sacrifices - small and large - that magic demands. Readers acclimated to its costs and repercussions in series like His Dark Materials or Harry Potter may be less convinced by what "Nightbird's" characters accomplish with herbs, rose petals and clarity of intent. The world of Sidwell is one of quiet sorcery. Power can be found not just in the crackle of summer lightning but in ritualistic and common chores - the planting of a garden, the making of a proper pie crust. Hoffman reminds us that there are secrets everywhere, and in these moments of unexpected discovery, "Nightbird" soars. LEIGH BARDUGO is the author of the Grisha Trilogy. Her new book, "Six of Crows," will be published in the fall.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Part modern fairy tale, part mystery, this story is set in a small town where townsfolk believe in unseen monsters who steal from them and a family lives in secret with an ancient curse. Twig Fowler is a lonely girl who is looking for friendship. She and her brother, James, both hope for something magical to happen, a wish that just might come true when a new family moves into the cottage next door. Jenna Lamia does an excellent job of narrating, quite convincingly sounding like a bright, complex, yet forlorn 12-year-old girl. Lamia captures the strange, ethereal essence of the tale and delivers both uncomfortable, sad scenes and tender, touching ones. VERDICT Recommended for middle schoolers looking for a story that sympathizes with adolescent isolation and insecurity, highlighting resilience, courage, and the importance of friendship and family to overcoming them.-Jennifer Mann, Ypsilanti District Library, MI © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
There's a monster in Sidwell, Massachusetts, that can only be seen at night or, as Twig reveals, if passersby are near her house. It's her older brother, James, born with wings just like every male in the Fowler line for the last 200 years. They were cursed by the Witch of Sidwell, left brokenhearted by their forebear Lowell Fowler. Twig and James are tired of the secret and self-imposed isolation. Lonely Twig narrates, bringing the small town and its characters to life, intertwining events present and past, and describing the effects of the spell on her fractured family's daily life. Longing for some normalcy and companionship, she befriends new-neighbor Julia while James falls in love with Julia's sister, Agateonly to learn they are descendants of the Witch. James and Agate seem as star-crossed as their ancestors, especially when the townspeople attribute a spate of petty thefts and graffiti protesting the development of the woods to the monster and launch a hunt. The mix of romance and magic is irresistible and the tension, compelling. With the help of friends and through a series of self-realizations and discoveries, Twig grows more self-assured. She is certain she knows how to change the curse. In so doing, Twig not only changes James' fate, but her own, for the first time feeling the fullness of family, friends and hope for the future. Enchanting. (Magical realism. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
You can't believe everything you hear, not even in Sidwell, Massachusetts, where every person is said to tell the truth and the apples are so sweet people come from as far as New York City during the apple festival. There are rumors that a mysterious creature lives in our town. Some people insist it's a bird bigger than an eagle; others say it's a dragon, or an oversized bat that resembles a person. Certainly this being, human or animal or something in between, exists nowhere else in this world. Children whisper that we have a monster in our midst, half man, half myth, and that fairy tales are real in Berkshire County. At the Sidwell General Store and at the gas station tourists can buy T-shirts decorated with a red-eyed winged beast with visit sidwell printed underneath. Every time I see one of these shirts in a shop, I casually drop it into the garbage bin. In my opinion, people should be careful about the stories they tell. All the same, whenever things go missing the monster is blamed. Weekends are the worst times for these odd thefts. Bread deliveries to the Starline Diner are several loaves short of the regular order. Clothes hanging on the line vanish. I know there's no such thing as a monster, but the thief has struck my family, as a matter of fact. One minute there were four pies sitting out on the kitchen counter to cool, and the next minute the back door was left open and one of the pies was missing. An old quilt left out on our porch disappeared one Saturday. There were no footprints on our lawn, but I did have a prickle of fear when I stood at the back door that morning, gazing into the woods. I thought I spied a solitary figure running through a thicket of trees, but it might have only been mist, rising from the ground. No one knows who takes these things, whether pranks are being played, or someone--or something--is truly in need, or if it is the creature that everyone assumes lives within the borders of our town. People in Sidwell argue as much as people do anywhere, but everyone agrees on one thing: Our monster can only be seen at night, and then only if you are standing at your window, or walking on a lane near the orchards, or if you happen to be passing our house. We live on Old Mountain Road, in a farmhouse that is over two hundred years old, with nooks and crannies and three brick fireplaces, all big enough for me to stand in, even though I am tall for twelve. From our front door there's a sweeping view of the woods that contain some of the oldest trees in Massachusetts. Behind us are twenty acres of apple orchards. We grow a special variety called Pink. One of my ancestors planted the first Pink apple tree in Sidwell. Some people say Johnny Appleseed himself, who introduced apple trees all over our country, presented our family with a one-of-a-kind seedling when he wandered through town on his way out west. We make Pink applesauce, Pink apple cake, and two shades of Pink apple pie, light and dark. In the summer, before we have apples, we have Pink peach berry pie, and in the late spring there is Hot-Pink strawberry rhubarb pie, made from fruit grown in the garden behind our house. Rhubarb looks like red celery; it's bitter, but when combined with strawberries it's delicious. I like the idea of something bitter and something sweet mixed together to create something incredible. Maybe that's because I come from a family in which we don't expect each other to be like anyone else. Being unusual is not unusual for the Fowlers. My mother's piecrust is said to be the finest in New England and our Pink cider is famous all over Massachusetts. People come from as far away as Cambridge and Lowell just to try them. We bring most of our pies and cupcakes to be sold at the General Store that's run by Mr. Stern, who can sell as many as my mother can bake. I've always wished that I was more like her instead of my awkward, gawky self. As a girl my mother attended ballet lessons at Miss Ellery's Dance School in town, and she's still graceful, even when she's picking apples or hauling baskets of fruit across the lawn. But my arms and legs are too long, and I tend to stumble over my own feet. The only thing I'm good at is running. And keeping secrets. I'm excellent at that. I've had a lot of practice. My mother has honey-colored hair that she pins up with a silver clip whenever she bakes. My hair is dark; sometimes I don't even know what color it is, a sort of blackish brown, the color of tree bark, or a night that has no stars. It gets so tangled while I'm out in the woods that this year I cut it out of frustration, just hacked at it with a pair of nail scissors, and now it is worse than ever, even though my mother says I look like a pixie. Looking like a pixie was not what I was after. I wanted to look like my mother, who everyone says was the prettiest girl in town when she was my age, and now is the most beautiful woman in the entire county. Excerpted from Nightbird by Alice Hoffman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.