ISBN: 0-395-66162-5 Order from: Amazon.com
A refreshing, quirky narrator makes this an unusually pleasant juvenile novel full of matter-of-fact magic, adolescent love, and the mysteries of human and owl relationships.
Reviewed by David on March 14, 1999
Genre: Fantasy (Juvenile, Shapeshifting)
Synopsis: Owl is a werechild. Spending her nights as an owl, and going to high school during the day, Owl's strange looks and abrupt habits keep her from making friends. Luckily for her, the fey child rarely feels any need for human companionship. Unfortunately, Owl is not immune to adolescent crushes. Her desire for one of her teachers complicates her life, tangles her previously simple motivations, forces her to interact with other teenagers, adults and birds.
Full Review: The book opens with quote that sums up Owl's unusual, straightforward intensity:
I am in love with Mr. Lindstrom, my science teacher. I found out where he lives and every night I perch on a tree branch outside his bedroom window and watch him sleep. He sleeps in his underwear: Fruit of the Loom, size 34.I watch him while I should be hunting. When I don't hunt, I don't eat. I grow thin for love of Mr. Lindstrom. My parents are getting worried. I go to bed at dawn, after watching Mr. Lindstrom as he sleeps all night. Then my parents tiptoe and watch anxiously while I sleep. It's only fair, I suppose.
Owl gets concerned when a strange, starving boy shows up in Mr. Lindstrom's neighborhood. Owl's pragmatic attitudes are not helped by her parents' supportive but naive attitude. Owl's pragmatism, combined with her parents' once grand but gloomy home creates an almost surreal atmosphere. When the exigencies of schoolwork force Owl to investigate the possibilities of collaboration, her formerly aloof but comfortable life gets even more complicated by such well-known but unexperienced phenomena as a schoolbus, cosmetics and pet hamsters (delicious!).
The various coincidences and oversimplified resolutions of the plot are appropriate only to a juvenile fantasy, but the refreshingly terse style and outlook of the protagonist, with the occasionally deeply ironic turns makes this a delightful read for fantasy lovers of all ages.
Overall: 6; Plot: 5.5; Characters: 6.5; Style: 6.5; World-building: 5; Originality: 6.5;
Copyright date 1993, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993, Cloth, 204 pages
ISBN: 0-395-66162-5 Order from: Amazon.com