 Birdland By Tracy Mack, ISBN 0-439-53590-5,
Scholastic Press, 2003. 198 pp.
Genre
Coming of Age
Characters
The main character Joseph (a.k.a. Jed) is a
thirteen-year-old boy who lives in New York City’s East Village with his dad –
an obstetrician who is always on call and rarely ever home, his mom – a music
history teacher, and his two-and-a-half-year-old brother Leo. They are all
coping with the death of Jed’s older brother, Ezekiel. Jed’s best friend and
classmate Theodore Alexander Gray the Second (a.k.a. Flyer) has lived alone with
his dad, Theodore Alexander Gray the First since his mom left them and moved to
San Francisco. Kiki is a homeless girl Jed meets during his travels in the East
Village.
Plot
The story takes place about half a year after the
death of Jed’s older brother Zeke, which his family still has trouble talking
about openly, or at all. Jed’s English teacher has assigned the class a project
over the Christmas holidays, to create an artistic representation of their
neighborhood in any format they choose – writing, painting, music, anything. The
idea is that, when they return, they will end up with a collage of their city to
symbolically “rebuild the pieces of our damaged city and repair our broken
hearts”(10). Jed and Flyer choose to make a documentary of the East Village,
filming the people and places they encounter in their daily lives. Jed finds
that, as a result, he looks closer at things that he normally took for granted,
discovering things about his city, his brother, his family, and himself that
both surprise and enlighten him.
Jed has so many haunting questions about his brother, and
tries to find the answers in his brother’s notebook filled with poetry that he
found under Zeke’s bed after his death. Zeke’s room is still exactly the way he
left it, which is symbolic of his family’s inability to deal with his death, and
their inability to move on with their lives. Through reading Zeke’s poetry, and
listening to the music of his hero Charlie Parker, Jed puts together pieces of
his lost brother and realizes the power of artistic expression.
Comments
Birdland is an extremely well crafted book, and
Mack’s melodious, poetic writing style carries the reader on the protagonist’s
emotional journey of memory, healing, and discovery, making for a captivating
reading experience. It is easy to empathize with the characters in this novel
because of their realism and their imperfections, and Mack takes the reader on a
genuine tour of New York’s East Village, portraying both the beauty and the
grittiness that exist there. Birdland is an in depth exploration of the
mysteries of life and death, which does not pretend to provide answers, but
provokes the reader to think about tragedy and loss at the family and community
level; it also realizes the importance of viewing and expressing our world
through artistic means.
The numerous references made to music, and the smatterings
of poetry throughout the book, as well as its brevity, make Birdland an ideal
segue from prose to poetry in any classroom. It is a very readable book and
would be a pleasure to read aloud; I would recommend it for students from grades
7 - 10
Touchy Areas
There are some heavy topics in Birdland,
such as loss of a family member, separation/divorce, talk of drug use,
self-injury, suicide and homelessness. All of these are dealt with tastefully,
are crucial to the story and the overall effect of the book, and are neither
glorified nor minimized in any way. This book could, in fact, lead to very
fruitful discussions about these issues. Although colloquial language is used,
there is not a single profanity.
Related Titles
Books:
Our House: the Stories of Levittown by Pam
Conrad (1995)
Cheeseburger Subversive by Richard Scarsbrook
(2003)
Film: Bird Clint Eastwood (1988)
Smoke Wayne Wang and Paul Auster (1996)
Moonlight Mile Brad Silberling (2002)
Dead Poets Society Peter Weir (1989)
Plays: Marion Bridge by Daniel MacIvor (1999)
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (1945)
Poetry: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode on Melancholy" by
John Keats (1820)
Music: anything by Charlie Parker
Reviewed by
Tyler Perry tperry@ualberta.ca
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Main Character
Jed Diamond is an eighth grader and the middle brother in a Jewish family
Setting
New York City, 2002
Plot
Jed's English teacher has assigned a post 9-11 project over the winter holiday
requiring him to document his neighborhood of New York. Jed and his best friend
Flyer have decided to make a documentary style film of the neighborhood, but Jed
looks beyond the streets and people for signs of his recently deceased brother,
Zeke. The family struggles to stay together while Jed is forced through
adolescence by what he finds.
Touchy Areas
None
Related Titles
Born Blue by Han Nolan
Nights In Birdland: Jazz Photographs 1954-60 by Carole Reiff
I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye: Surviving, Coping and Healing After the Sudden
Death of a Loved One by Brook Noel and Pamela D. Blair
Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher
Connections
Movies: Stand By Me; A River Runs Through It; Lean on Me
Music: "Free Falling" by Tom Petty; "I'm a Man" by Bo
Diddley; "Black Balloon" by The Goo Goo Dolls; "6th Avenue
Heartache" by The Wallflowers; "Life by the Drop" by Stevie Ray
Vaughan; "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton; "New York, New
York" by Ryan Adams
Photos: A picture of Charlie Parker and the various neighborhoods of New York.
Websites: www.asha.org (American Speech Language Hearing Association)
Evaluation
Poetic language, a well-developed plot, and challenging themes--dealing with
death, parents on the verge of separation, and struggle with religion--make Birdland
a must read. Appropriate for sixth through ninth graders. Rating: 9/10
Reviewed by
Chris Goering. Washburn Rural High School. Topeka, KS.
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