Little Bird Lands

Karen McCombie's Little Bird Lands is a gripping historical adventure for 11 year olds about a Scottish girl who has to start all over again on the far side of the Atlantic.

What happens

Bridie was born with a weak left hand and a twisted foot, and nobody expected her to live. Fifteen years on, she's clever, stubborn and very hard to knock down. Her family fled their tiny island of Tornish, and for two years they've been making a life near New York.

Then the city turns dangerous. On a trip to Barnum's American Museum there's a fire, a terrifying crush on the stairs and a little girl whose hand Bridie refuses to let go of.

Soon her father decides they're moving somewhere far away from the war. That turns out to be Hawk's Point, a half-built copper-mining town on the icy shore of Lake Superior. The last boat of the year has just docked, so there's no leaving till spring. And the family are carrying secrets they really can't afford to have found out.

Bridie tells it all herself, and it's like listening to a friend with a lovely old-fashioned turn of phrase (and plenty of Gaelic). She's fiercely fair-minded too. When a bullying storekeeper sneers at her, she puts both hands flat on his counter and glares right back. Brilliant!

There's plenty going on in town. A woman doctor nobody wants. A mine manager who won't talk about his wife. Explosions that shake the ground under your feet. Your reader will want to know how it all fits together.

It's worth knowing that Bridie's world has some ugly attitudes in it. A boy uses a slur about the Anishinaabe man who helps the family, and the storekeeper twists a girl's wrist so her coins spill. The story is firmly on the side of the people being treated badly, but it's there on the page. There's also sadness in the family's past, including the death of Bridie's mother before the book begins.

This picks up straight after Little Bird Flies, which is in the library too, and that's where Bridie's story really starts. Begin there if you can.

What to read next

For another determined girl getting by in a hard, crowded city of the past, try Fagin's Girl next. It's another Karen McCombie story, about Ettie, a flower-maker's daughter whose big brother is hiding a secret.