No wonder this book was a touchstone to so many Millennials, especially queer Millennials. As Sarah Rettger wrote about Birdy on Book Riot in 2013: “Wouldn’t you choose keeping a diary over doing your daily spinning?” The 1995 Trophy Newbery copy I read had a cover illustration of Catherine rigging a bucket to pour over a suitor’s head. Birdy’s entries contain everything about her daily life in 1200s England, from mundane chores to saints’ days. Although the aesthetics were totally different, Cushman’s novels helped me realize people have felt trapped by societal expectations and fought them throughout history.Ĭatherine, Called Birdy is an epistolary novel written in diary format. My family has always encouraged me to be independent and opinionated, but I probably thought independent women were a recent phenomenon. The phrase “girl power” was everywhere in late 1990s pop culture, when I was in 4th or 5th grade, and I associated it with loud, angry rock bands. Historical fiction also made me realize what I had in common with people from the past and which social issues still existed in my own time. Karen Cushman’s middle grade novels from the 1990s, The Midwife’s Apprentice and Catherine, Called Birdy, transported me. As a kid, it often made me feel like I’d time traveled.
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