Catherine, Called Birdy

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman is about a young woman in England in the year of 1290. In her journal, she wonders about everything, reflects upon her actions, ponders the actions of others, and records the daily things she learns and experiences. Throughout the year, we see Medieval England through her eyes as the daughter of a knight; she shares with us the hardships and joys of the villagers, daily life in the manor, and, perhaps most important of all for readers now, a glance at what it meant to be a teenage girl during Medieval times.

I loved Catherine, Called Birdy when I was in middle school; the pages and binding are worn and falling apart from its many readings. Birdy is spunky, feisty, mouthy and as stubborn as a mule. Her reactions to certain events and her curse words (which will be unfamiliar to young readers today), are humorous --I laughed aloud several times during this reading, and I recall doing the same years ago.

As readers see her promised against her will to a "pig in pants" (an old man she dubs Shaggy Beard), help deliver her mother's baby, run away to see a hanging, forced to spend all day embroidering and hemming, fight with her father, and long for what she does not have, it humbles them at times and allows them to relate at others. As is often necessary for adolescents, it directs their attention, and perhaps their concern, away from themselves to understand another's way of life. I would recommend this novel to my middle school girls so that they may relate to, or perhaps learn something from, Birdy's journey in which she discovers her own morals (in the case of the exiled Jews and the dancing bear), humility and a special knowledge of herself. I would probably have them read a section and write a response to it, and/or look up unfamiliar words, phrases or events so as to better understand the author's message.