'Bird' by Crystal Chan

 Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

Nothing matters. Only Bird matters. And he flew away.

Jewel never knew her brother Bird, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Her parents blame Grandpa for the tragedy of their family’s past; they say that Grandpa attracted a malevolent spirit—a duppy—into their home. Grandpa hasn’t spoken a word since. Now Jewel is twelve, and she lives in a house full of secrets.

Jewel is sure that no one will ever love her like they loved Bird, until the night that she meets a mysterious boy in a tree.

Grandpa is convinced that the boy is a duppy, but Jewel knows that he is something more. And that maybe the time has come to break through the stagnant silence of the past.

Entrenched secrets, mysterious spirits, and an astonishing friendship weave together in this extraordinary and haunting debut. 

Jewel was born the day her brother John ‘Bird’ died. On that day, Jewel’s birthday, her Grandpa stopped talking and the whole family became quiet and sad … and they’ve stayed that way for the last 12 years.

Then, on her 12th birthday, Jewel climbs a tree and meets a boy called John. John is African-American, adopted by white parents and obsessed with becoming an astronaut. In Jewel, he finds a kindred spirit, not least of all because in their small Iowa town Jewel and John stick out; 

“You’re not from around here.” 

A little something tightened inside me, like it did every time I got this question, but I was used to it. Mostly. “I’m half-Jamaican, a quarter white, and a quarter Mexican,” I said. 

“Wow,” John said. “I didn’t know people could turn out like that.” 

“And I am from around here,” I said, making sure my voice carried over the crickets. “I was born in the house down the road.” 

John said, “I’m not trying to insult you or anything. I’ve just never met someone like you.” 

But Grandpa becomes convinced that John is a ‘duppy’ – a bad spirit from Jamaican legend. Jewel doesn’t believe such things, but she knows that sine John arrived secrets are coming out, and her sad, quiet family are starting to reflect on their past …

‘Bird’ is the debut middle-grade novel from American author Crystal Chan.

From the very first line, this book had me; 

Grandpa stopped speaking the day he killed my brother, John. 

And by the end of the first page, I was hooked and already a little bit teary; 

… until Bird jumped off a cliff, the cliff at the edge of the tallgrass prairie, the cliff that dropped a good couple hundred feet to a dried-up riverbed below. Bird’s little blue bath towel was found not far from his body, snagged on a bush, the towel that served as wings.

This is a book about wounds that just won’t heal and what happens when loss and guilt get all mixed up in the here and now. It’s about the solace of friendship, and brings to mind that Frida Kahlo quote: “I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do.” Above all else, Crystal Chan’s ‘Bird’ is beautiful.

Jewel is a most intriguing young woman. She’s obsessed with rocks and hopes to be a geologist one day. She’s also struggling in her rural-Iowa town where she sticks out for her Jamaican/Caucasian/Mexican heritage. Crystal Chan herself is of Chinese/Polish descent, and offers up a real gem in the character of Jewel and her explorations into being mixed-race. This particular thread of the story really struck me, especially when you consider that the only other person who would have really understood what it’s like to be Jewel was her brother – John ‘Bird’. But he died, and so Jewel is navigating her childhood without the brother whose death stills casts a pall over the family. 

I loved the friendship between John and Jewel – a lovely balance between the astronomer and the geologist, one so grounded and the other always looking up to the Heavens. I especially liked their ambitions because it means the book is peppered with some interesting astronomy/geology factoids (all of which Chan has gathered on her website). 

In the second-half of the novel the focus shifts back to Bird’s death, and the loss, guilt and blame Jewel’s family have let broil beneath the surface for the last twelve years. I liked the fact that Chan gave the adults in Jewel’s life such complex, heartbreaking backstory … but these were events that happened when Jewel was just a baby and though she’s been living in their aftermath, by the second-half of the novel she’s not as proactive in her own story and turned into a bit of a bystander. And I did wonder if younger readers would pick up on the difficult nuances and revelations of the adult’s story – but at the same time I do appreciate that Chan lets her readers peek into such a complex, strained adult world. 

This is a really beautiful book – but by no means an ‘easy’ book, especially for young readers going on this emotional journey with Jewel. But Chan’s writing is delicate and heartbreaking, John and Jewel are a fabulous pairing and I loved this book about the reverberations of the past being felt in the present. 

4.5/5

Interview with Crystal Chan, author of 'Bird'

Crystal Chan is the debut author of the novel Bird, now available in Australia from Text Publishing. 

This book is so beautiful, and I'm so glad that I was given the opportunity to ask some questions of the very talented author-to-watch, Crystal Chan.

◙ ◙ ◙ 

Q: How were you first published – agent or slush pile?

Agent, kind of. I went to a writers’ conference and submitted my first 20 pages for a critique, and the reader loved my manuscript and wanted to read the whole thing! After that, she put me in touch with her agent and other agents she knew. So that’s how I got my agent. BUT fast forward about a year: I went to another writers’ workshop with this editor, who read the first 50 pages of my second manuscript, which was (then) a WIP, when we went out with my finished, original manuscript, the editor said thanks but no thanks; I want to acquire the WIP I read – I can’t stop thinking about it. So we sold the second manuscript as a first-draft partial, which was crazy process, let me tell you. It just underscored for me how individualized each person’s path to publication really is.

Q: Are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’ - that is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

I let the story evolve naturally, until a certain point – usually midway through, and then I start plotting it out. 

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘Bird’, from first idea to final manuscript?

About a year and a half.

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

It’s a total free-fall – I like that word to describe the process, btw. In fact, for me (and I know this sounds weird) but for the stories I’ve written, the voice just comes to me – I can hear it so distinctly in my mind – and the first chapter is basically writing down what I’m hearing. The subsequent chapters aren’t necessarily like that, but the voice remains strong.

Q: Jewel is half-Jamaican, a quarter white and a quarter Mexican. The boy she befriends, John, is African-American adopted by white parents. You yourself are of Chinese/Polish descent – why was it important to you to write about mixed-race characters and families?

Growing up in a small town in the 80’s, no one around me was bi-racial. No one looked like me, and no one shared my experiences.  In a way, I was lonely and didn’t even realize it – I didn’t know what it would be like to have someone understand the questions I faced…that was so outside my realm of experience that I didn’t even long for it. Until I got older, as in, college-age. They (at writer’s conferences) always say to write the book you wanted to read as a child, and I knew that if I’d had a book like Bird as a child, I would hang onto it for dear life and never let it go. 

Q: John has dreams of being as astronaut, and Jewel wants to be a geologist when she grows up –the book is full of interesting facts about astronomy and geology. I wonder if there were already two areas of interest for you, or did you have to do copious amounts of research when you decided on those ambitions for Jewel and John?

I’ve always loved geological formations, but not in a scientific way. Same with astronomy. So I had to do a LOT of research, which was fun and interesting – and challenging, as I’m not really a scientist, I don’t have a scientist’s mind.

Q: In the book, Jewel talks a lot about ‘duppies’ - evil spirits from Jamaican mythology. How did you first learn about duppies, and what sort of research did you do into their origins?

I first encountered duppies when, after college, I was working as an AmeriCorps volunteer at a college in New Jersey, and one of my interns was from Trinidad. He was totally chill, very laid back – until you got him talking about duppies and ghosts and curses. Then his eyes would get big, his voice would deepen and tense up – you could really tell that this affected him deeply. That was my first encounter with the duppy. But more than that, I just knew that Jewel was part Jamaican, and I found the duppy again when I was researching Jamaican worldviews/beliefs. I did tons of research: books, websites, interviews with Jamaicans, and I explored different belief systems city v. country, etc. I really wanted to get the culture as accurately as I could; I myself have often been misrepresented, and I wanted to be as accurate and respectful as possible.

Q: What’s the appeal in writing for younger readers?

Writing for younger readers isn’t intentional on my part – it’s just the story that comes out. But I do love the fact that kidlit is so family based, and I can really explore the intricacies of family dynamics. Writing for kids really lends itself to that.

Q: Favourite author(s) of all time?

Always hard! Madeline L’Engle, Kate DiCamilo, Kathi Appelt, Neil Gaiman, Adam Rex, Cynthia Kadohata, Angela Johnson, Junot Diaz, Joy Harjo, Sherman Alexie

Q: Favourite book(s)?

Always harder! A Wrinkle in Time, The Tiger Rising, The Underneath, The First Part Last, Blasphemy

Q: Do you have any advice for budding young writers?

Accept whatever emotions come up inside you – don’t push them down or ignore them, even if it’s uncomfortable. Because if you don’t allow yourself to feel anger, sadness, grief, or loss, how can you possibly write about these emotions for your characters?

And write from your heart, always. When you write, remember you’re writing from a special space inside, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Practice telling stories – tell stories all the time. When you’re not telling stories, practice listening to others tell their stories. Because that’s all that writing really is: telling a story.