Sonderbooks Book Review of

Nightbird

by Alice Hoffman

Nightbird

by Alice Hoffman

Review posted July 23, 2015.
Wendy Lamb Books (Random House), 2015. 197 pages.
Starred Review

I've read at least three different books about a teen who sprouts wings, and how they deal with that. This book is different -- It's about the sister of a boy with wings. In fact, the wings are part of a family curse on all the men of the family.

Twig Fowler lives in the small town of Sidwell, Massachusetts, with her mother and a brother that no one knows about. The town has plenty of tradition - including Twig's mother's Pink Apple Pie. But one of the traditions -- the Sidwell Monster -- is not so benign.

James is tired of living in hiding. And Twig is tired of not having friends. When a family moves into the home of the witch who cursed the Fowler family, and they are descended from that witch -- Twig and her new friend Julia decide it may be time to break the spell. But how? And James is getting more and more reckless -- and falling in love with Julia's sister Agate.

This is a feel-good story, and if things worked out awfully nicely, I don't begrudge any of them a happy ending. We've got a kid just wanting friends, a small town infused with magic, and Alice Hoffman's brilliant writing.