One Bird

by Kyoko Mori

Book Overview

When her mother abandons her, 15-year-old Megumi Shimizu starts to tell lies in an effort to deal with her aching isolation. Only Dr. Mizutani, the spinster lady veterinarian who teaches Megumi how to care for the birds, helps the young girl to deal with the truth of her situation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805029834
• ISBN13: 9780805029833
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Gentle, self-critical, open-spirited book

I loved the book for its images--it taught me a lot and made me much more interested in learning about birds, for one!--and the gentle way it dealt with all the characters--even the unsympathetic ones have their "moments" and their perspectives are sought out and thought about. The narrator's voice is self-critical and aware of itself changing, which I like--and the narrator is not always "right"--events get reconsidered and reinterpreted several times in the course of the novel, and sometimes the narrator simply admits that she can't yet understand something, but maybe someday will. This book gave me the sensation of living and growing, beginning to understand things about the world, and learning to avoid snap judgments and prejudices. I feel like the book opened me up instead of telling me what to think.

The best YA book

My friend was the first to read this book and I started after her after grabbing it to do a report. Most the time I barley get litte over half way through then I'm done. Not with this book. I stayed up for hours becuase it's one of those books you can't put down. The author is so good you acually feel like you know Megumi and what she is going through.

An excellent well-written book

This book was a remarkable. It described the difficult four months that Megumi had to live through without her mother. I found this book not only interesting but emotional as well. It was well-written with lots of description allowing me to feel as if I was in the book along with the other characters. I recommend this book to anyone who has not yet read it.

Lovely

beautifully written, and very interesting. It was hard to put down, once started.

This book was very interesting.

This book was really interesting. In the beginning, it was really sad, but it showed me the injustices in marriage. I'm glad it all worked out in the end, though. This book was written in easy-to-read sentences. I'd recommend it to anyone who's having family problems.