M. G. Leonard’s Twitch is a summer mystery for 9 year olds about a boy who watches birds and ends up watching something else entirely.<\/p>\n
Twitch gets his nickname from a nervous blink. He likes it anyway, because his grandad told him a twitcher is a birdwatcher who goes after the rare ones.<\/p>\n
He keeps chickens and pigeons. He has swallows in the garden and blue tits in the nesting box. He has also built himself a hide deep in Aves Wood, out past the boggy bit where nobody sensible walks, and planted brambles and nettles all round it so nobody finds it.<\/p>\n
On the last day of term he heads straight there. The wood is full of police. Dogs, boats in the reeds, a helicopter low over the trees. A prisoner has escaped from Dovelock Prison and the officers think he’s coming to the wood to collect something.<\/p>\n
Twitch is very good at sitting still and looking through binoculars. You can see where this is going and it’s a lovely fit.<\/p>\n
There’s more going on than the escape. Two girls are hiding behind a fallen tree, watching the police as nervously as Twitch is. And on the walk home a friendly Irish stranger called Billy has already asked him where a person might park a camper van somewhere quiet, without having to pay.<\/p>\n
A word about the bullying, because there’s a lot of it and it’s nasty. The book opens with four boys about to kill a trapped pigeon with a brick, and Twitch throwing a stone to stop them. Afterwards he’s thrown into the bins and kicked. Later a crowd pins him down and tries to force a worm into his mouth. It stops because an adult shouts.<\/p>\n
None of it is glossed over. Twitch is bruised, he’s alone, and the reason he keeps going is the birds.<\/p>\n
If your reader finds sustained cruelty hard, that’s the thing to weigh. If they can stand it, the payoff is a hero whose whole skill set is patience and noticing, which isn’t a hero they’ll have met very often.<\/p>\n
For another mystery where a quiet boy is the one paying attention, try The Highland Falcon Thief. It starts with Harrison being packed off on a steam train with an uncle he hardly knows, and a jewel thief in the papers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
M. G. Leonard’s Twitch is a summer mystery for 9 year olds about a boy who watches birds and ends up watching something else entirely. Twitch gets his nickname from a nervous blink. He likes it anyway, because his grandad told him a twitcher is a birdwatcher who goes after the rare ones. He keeps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11644,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9120,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Highland Falcon Thief","lr_seo_hook":"A birdwatcher, a hidden den and an escaped prisoner in the same wood.","lr_series_id":103,"lr_series_name":"The Twitchers","lr_series_position":1,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[657],"class_list":["post-9617","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-m-g-leonard"],"yoast_title":"The Twitchers 1 – Twitch by M. G. Leonard | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A birdwatcher, a hidden den and an escaped prisoner in the same wood. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n