Birdy Flynn

Gr 8 Up—A coming-of-age tale set in the 1980s London suburbs. Birdy Flynn loves to hang out with the guys from school, but when they torture and kill his grandmother's cat, he chooses not to tell his family why the animal is missing. The secrets in his life pile on top of one another until he decides to come clean to his parents. Birdy is transgender and identifies as male, but about a third of the way into the narrative it is apparent that he was assigned female at birth and that he is not out to his friends or family. While on a school trip, he is attacked by a female teacher. This secret weighs on him as much as the truth about his grandmother's cat, until he finds another student who has also been assaulted. The violent death of a cat, which opens this book, will be too graphic for some readers. The early 1980s setting may make this novel difficult for some teens to follow. This slice-of-life story is slowly paced, while the third-person narration distances readers from Birdy and what is going on in his head.