Homeless Bird
The National Book Award-winning novel about one remarkable young woman who dares to defy fate, perfect for readers who enjoyed A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park or Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.
Like many girls her age in India, thirteen-year-old Koly faces her arranged marriage with hope and courage. But Koly's story takes a terrible turn when in the wake of the ceremony, she discovers she's been horribly misled—her life has been sold for a dowry. Can she forge her own future, even in the face of time-worn tradition?
Perfect for schools and classrooms, this universally acclaimed, bestselling, and award-winning novel by master of historical fiction Gloria Whelan is a gripping tale of hope that will transport readers of all ages.
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Community Reviews
I have many critiques of this book. In my opinion, while this may have been fine when it was originally published (which I am horrified to write is the year 2000???), it can no longer stand up against books written by actual people of color. It's also boring. Keep reading if you also found this book lacking.
Aside from, I thought, being blandly written and in a style that's less than engaging, the biggest problem I have with it is its representation of India and Indian people. For the record, Gloria Whelan is a white lady. Which is fine, but why read this book when we can read better books by actual Indian or Indian-American people? In this age of #ownvoices, it is not a difficult task.
The India portrayed in this book is reductive, to say the least. It feels very much like the first 2/3rds of the book is set in like the 1940s. Koly gets married at 13 and makes the dung patties and can't read and wasn't allowed to go to school and hell no one went to school because even though they're Brahmans and both the fathers are scholars of some kind, let's never teach anyone to read. Then, Koly's sister-in-law Chandra gets married to a guy who works with computers. Whaaaat. And they talk about going to the cinema in Vrindavan. But like, the author uses weird wording for things that I guess she's trying to make sound less American ("cinema," "automobile,"). While I can understand that life in rural India probably does not come with the same modern touches as living in Vrindavan, Whelan made it sound like they were literally scratching out an existence in the dark ages. Then, when she gets to Vrindavan, it's mostly described as, like, crowded and busy. It also gives very little indication that it's in a modern setting. This book obviously takes place in the late 1990s/early 2000s given the presence of a home computer, but the Vrindavan described sounds more like 1950.
Then come the cultural stereotypes, child brides being the first one. Again, I'm sure this happens. But for many children in white, rural America, this may very well be their only interaction with Indian culture. They're going to come away from this book thinking that Indians are stuck in poverty and archaic religious ideas. Often, it is expressed by secondary characters that girls shouldn't be educated. Not that they have no opportunities to be educated, but that they shouldn't be. This is expressed enough times by a variety of characters that it makes it feel like a blanket statement for India. This just doesn't feel realistic. Lack of educational opportunity, sure. But like damn, these folks are all portrayed as being so backwater. (A better book about this would be Malala's memoir.)
It is also made clear that their religion is bunk. The main character talks about how they're taking her ailing teenage husband to the Ganges to heal him but she knows that even if she hope it'll work, it won't work. Instead of parents desperate for any type of cure for their son, Koly's in-laws are portrayed as believing so strongly in their religion that they don't acknowledge or listen to science. Koly talks about how there's tons of praying in Vrindavan but she gets help from elsewhere. It all just seems like lip service or blanket stereotype.
And what a disservice to Holi! It's mentioned, mostly in passing, and it's said that the dye is made out of red powder mixed with cow dung and cow urine. Um. First off, even the rural villages get more than one color. It's literally the festival of COLORS. Secondly, what a turn off! I could not find any reference to cow dung and urine being mixed in with the colors and that is especially not true in modern cities in the modern age. Despite the fact that it's one paragraph, too, I can imagine kids reading this and thinking it's gross. Holi is such a cool festival and to have it reduced to one color made with gross things is disappointing.
Lastly, though they seem to have changed it in recent years, the copies that are available at my school are the ones with the cover listed on this page. Essentially, with a white girl on the cover. So, all-in-all, save your reading time. This book is reductive, boring, bland, and vaguely insulting. Here's a list of actual Indian authors to spend your time on instead:
https://readingmiddlegrade.com/asian-middle-grade-books
https://fannaforbooks.com/2022/05/09/asian-heritage-month-12-middle-grade-books-by-south-asian-authors
https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/south-asian
Aside from, I thought, being blandly written and in a style that's less than engaging, the biggest problem I have with it is its representation of India and Indian people. For the record, Gloria Whelan is a white lady. Which is fine, but why read this book when we can read better books by actual Indian or Indian-American people? In this age of #ownvoices, it is not a difficult task.
The India portrayed in this book is reductive, to say the least. It feels very much like the first 2/3rds of the book is set in like the 1940s. Koly gets married at 13 and makes the dung patties and can't read and wasn't allowed to go to school and hell no one went to school because even though they're Brahmans and both the fathers are scholars of some kind, let's never teach anyone to read. Then, Koly's sister-in-law Chandra gets married to a guy who works with computers. Whaaaat. And they talk about going to the cinema in Vrindavan. But like, the author uses weird wording for things that I guess she's trying to make sound less American ("cinema," "automobile,"). While I can understand that life in rural India probably does not come with the same modern touches as living in Vrindavan, Whelan made it sound like they were literally scratching out an existence in the dark ages. Then, when she gets to Vrindavan, it's mostly described as, like, crowded and busy. It also gives very little indication that it's in a modern setting. This book obviously takes place in the late 1990s/early 2000s given the presence of a home computer, but the Vrindavan described sounds more like 1950.
Then come the cultural stereotypes, child brides being the first one. Again, I'm sure this happens. But for many children in white, rural America, this may very well be their only interaction with Indian culture. They're going to come away from this book thinking that Indians are stuck in poverty and archaic religious ideas. Often, it is expressed by secondary characters that girls shouldn't be educated. Not that they have no opportunities to be educated, but that they shouldn't be. This is expressed enough times by a variety of characters that it makes it feel like a blanket statement for India. This just doesn't feel realistic. Lack of educational opportunity, sure. But like damn, these folks are all portrayed as being so backwater. (A better book about this would be Malala's memoir.)
It is also made clear that their religion is bunk. The main character talks about how they're taking her ailing teenage husband to the Ganges to heal him but she knows that even if she hope it'll work, it won't work. Instead of parents desperate for any type of cure for their son, Koly's in-laws are portrayed as believing so strongly in their religion that they don't acknowledge or listen to science. Koly talks about how there's tons of praying in Vrindavan but she gets help from elsewhere. It all just seems like lip service or blanket stereotype.
And what a disservice to Holi! It's mentioned, mostly in passing, and it's said that the dye is made out of red powder mixed with cow dung and cow urine. Um. First off, even the rural villages get more than one color. It's literally the festival of COLORS. Secondly, what a turn off! I could not find any reference to cow dung and urine being mixed in with the colors and that is especially not true in modern cities in the modern age. Despite the fact that it's one paragraph, too, I can imagine kids reading this and thinking it's gross. Holi is such a cool festival and to have it reduced to one color made with gross things is disappointing.
Lastly, though they seem to have changed it in recent years, the copies that are available at my school are the ones with the cover listed on this page. Essentially, with a white girl on the cover. So, all-in-all, save your reading time. This book is reductive, boring, bland, and vaguely insulting. Here's a list of actual Indian authors to spend your time on instead:
https://readingmiddlegrade.com/asian-middle-grade-books
https://fannaforbooks.com/2022/05/09/asian-heritage-month-12-middle-grade-books-by-south-asian-authors
https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/south-asian
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