Birdie

Twelve-year-old Roberta Briggs, known to everyone as Birdie, lives in the small town of Hadley Falls with her mother and her grandmother, Maymee. A devoted bird enthusiast who keeps daily bird charts, learns birdsong, and plans to legally change her name to Birdie Briggs at eighteen, she moved to Hadley Falls from Philadelphia three years earlier after her father, a firefighter, died in the line of duty entering a burning warehouse. City life became too sad and expensive, so she and Mom moved in with Maymee. Birdie still grieves deeply: each night, she puts on her dad's reading glasses to see the wavy world through his lenses, kisses his framed photo, and says goodnight to him. For months after his death, she woke each morning terrified that Mom had also died during the night. The anxiety has mostly subsided but still surfaces when Mom is late.

Birdie's days revolve around a few close relationships. Her best friend, Martin Stefano, was the first person she befriended in Hadley Falls and suggested they continue the Saturday Scrabble games Birdie once played with her dad. Nina Faull, a boy-crazy girl who recently moved from Idaho with her father and little brother Sammy, has also become a friend, though she dismisses word games as boring. Maymee reads mystery novels and has spent three years planning her own funeral. Mom is frequently coming home late with vague excuses; Maymee suspects Mom is dating, but Birdie dismisses the idea.

At Hadley Grace Church one Sunday, Maymee loudly interrupts the pastor to ask about an unfamiliar older man, Harlan Gray, a retired engineer from Michigan visiting his granddaughter for the summer. Maymee is instantly charmed. Meanwhile, local police officer Fred Downey begins appearing at the edges of family life, returning Maymee's lost cane and joining the church choir. Mom keeps her distance from Fred because his job, like Dad's, puts him in danger every day.

Birdie notices unsettling shifts. Martin delivers cookies to Nina's brother without waiting for Birdie, then spends the afternoon with Nina. Birdie watches them sitting side by side, smiling, and feels a pang she cannot name. She reflects on how she smiles constantly at school, even when other kids mention their fathers, to mask her grief, sometimes smiling so hard she feels her face will crack.

Maymee's romance with Harlan blossoms rapidly. He becomes a near-daily presence, taking the family to dinner, teaching Birdie the jitterbug, giving her a hummingbird necklace, and helping with homework. Birdie enjoys his company and tells Mom she likes having a man around the house. Mom seizes on this remark to reveal that she and Fred have been secretly dating. Mom's frequent late arrivals were actually dates.

Birdie is furious. She refuses Fred's attempts to connect, including an expensive pair of birding binoculars she recognizes as a bribe and hides in her closet. On Memorial Day, she refuses to attend the parade because parades remind her of riding on her dad's fire truck and tossing candy to the crowd. She visits Loretta Lomax, a classmate who aspires to be a therapist, and finally cries about the situation. Later, Martin waits for Birdie at the bus stop and they walk to the creek. Birdie notices how blue his eyes are for the first time. Martin reassures her that Mom and Fred could get tired of each other. That night, holding Dad's photo, she tells him her heart is his but admits that "maybe somebody else gets a little piece too" (80).

The following Saturday, Martin brings Nina to Scrabble. Nina wears a blue shirt, the same color Birdie chose because it is Martin's favorite. Nina flicks snacks at Martin, spells words like "kiss" and "hug," and wins the game. Afterward, Martin walks Nina home, and they run off together, possibly holding hands. Birdie goes to bed without completing any of her nightly rituals and searches "heartsick" online. She withdraws, faking illness to skip events and avoiding Martin and Nina. On the last day of school, she tells Martin she is bored with Scrabble, ending their tradition. When she finally confides in Maymee, Maymee asks whether Martin even knew how Birdie felt. Birdie admits he did not. Maymee shares her own seventh-grade heartbreak and tells Birdie that life goes on.

Then Harlan suffers a stroke. He loses the ability to speak or move his left side, and his son comes to take him back to Michigan. Maymee is devastated, revealing that she and Harlan had been discussing marriage. When Birdie cries, Fred takes her hand, and she does not pull away.

After Harlan leaves, Maymee stays in bed until Birdie brings her an old undertaker's catalog and asks which coffin she liked best. The absurdity makes Maymee laugh. She declares she has a life to plan: writing to Harlan daily and visiting Michigan. Fred delivers Olive, Harlan's cat, because Harlan drew a picture indicating he wanted Olive to stay with Maymee. The cat darts under Birdie's bed and becomes her companion. When Fred brings strawberry shortcake, Birdie calls him "Fred" for the first time.

During Nina's summer absence, Birdie tries to reconnect with Martin, but every attempt falls flat. On one outing, Martin puts his arm around Birdie's shoulder and she catches her breath, but then he says, "I miss Nina. Don't you?" (133). Birdie tells Maymee she gives up. On the Fourth of July, she and Maymee sit on the sofa holding hands, each missing someone, until Birdie impulsively suggests they go to the parade. Birdie struggles when fire trucks pass but holds Maymee's hand through it.

At the church ice cream social, Birdie meets Albert Evans, a new boy who wears owl-like round glasses and keeps a pet snail named Ivan. Albert calls himself a snail enthusiast and sought Birdie out after learning she loves birds. Nina reveals she broke up with Martin because she likes their classmate Charlie Deale instead, telling Birdie she can have Martin. But when Albert brings Birdie a BirdOpoly board game and Martin joins them to play, Martin says he is not upset about the breakup and missed his friends while dating. Both boys agree dating should wait until high school. Birdie is initially annoyed but gets caught up in laughter and brownies, and Martin suggests playing BirdOpoly every Saturday. Mom announces she and Fred will marry in October, and Birdie finds she is not as upset as she expected.

For Dad's upcoming birthday, Birdie decides to bring a live snail to his grave so he will have company. She enlists her friends to search, but no one finds one until the eve of the birthday, when Albert arrives with Lucy, his own pet snail, offering her for the grave. Birdie cries happy tears. That night, Mom gets food poisoning and cannot make the drive to the cemetery. Fred offers to drive Birdie himself. At the grave, Birdie sets up the picnic alone and talks to Dad while Fred sits by a distant tree. Eventually she calls him over and introduces Fred to Dad. Fred tells Birdie about his own father, who died when Fred was in college. Birdie takes Fred's hand and offers to accompany him the next time he visits his dad's grave.

By late August, Maymee has flown to Michigan to visit Harlan. Nina has broken up with Charlie too, and Birdie tells her they should focus on friendship rather than dating. When an owl feather floats down during a BirdOpoly game, Birdie takes it as a sign that when she is ready for a boyfriend, it will be Albert. In the final scene, Birdie and Mom accompany Fred to his father's grave. Fred plants a rosebush while Birdie sets a framed photo by the gravestone and tells Fred's father, "We're family now, Mr. Downey. So you'll be seeing a lot of us" (197).