Chasing Redbird
By Sharon Creech and Marc Burckhardt
4/5
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About this ebook
“Intriguing, delightful, and touching.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
“Creech’s best yet.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
It started out as an ordinary summer. But the minute thirteen-year-old Zinny discovered the old, overgrown trail that ran through the woods behind her family’s house, she realized that things were about to change.
It was her chance to finally make people notice her, and to have a place she could call her very own. But more than that, Zinny knew that the trail somehow held the key to all kinds of questions. And that the only way to understand her family, her Aunt Jessie’s death, and herself, was to find out where it went.
From Newbery Medal-winning author Sharon Creech comes a story of love, loss, and understanding, an intricately woven tale of a young girl who sets out in search of her place in the world—and discovers it in her own backyard.
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Sharon Creech
Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler. Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, “lured there by our grandchildren,” Creech says. www.sharoncreech.com
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Reviews for Chasing Redbird
312 ratings19 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zinny starts to clear a path she discovers behind her house. Eventually she discovers the purpose of this path and vows to clear it by the end of the summer. She's working through her own issues as she goes, blaming herself for the death of her cousin and aunt, wondering about how her family feels about her among so many children, and wondering how to help her uncle who sees her aunt everywhere. Her journey leads her to camp alone on a long trail, make a new friend, and find answers.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I read this when I was a kid and decided just to read it again and it is a bit different reading it over as an adult, but still a great book by a great author!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really good, unexpected plot. Interesting middle and surprising end makes for a great story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rating based on how much I enjoyed it as a child. I do plan to re-read it now that I've found a copy at a local used bookstore.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Students get to know Zinnia at the beginning of the book and about the special relationship she had with her Aunt and Uncle. She finds out that she too was chasing something when she left to clear the trail. She needed to make herself into someone different from the rest of the family members. She had always felt alone and left out. Unfortunately her parents did not realize what was going on because she never complained about others taking things from her or having to live with hand me down items. She began chasing a dream of finding her own place and when she returns she feels she has been replaced and the relationship are different. Zinnia finds a love in Jake and he feels the same towards her. Students who read the book will find they need to develop a voice to be heard and get the attention. As Zinnia finds the old cabin with all the missing items from her aunt and cousin, she realizes they never will be forgotten. She shows she cares for her uncle when she takes him to the cabin. He comes to terms with his chase for his redbird like Zinnia does when she finishes the trail. I did not realize this book was for younger children but would be a good book for students who are struggling readers when they are trying to find their place in the world. There is quite a bit of skipping around at the beginning of the book but as you read you understand the search for self.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Read as an adult, great story of a girl who uses nature to work through her guilt about the death of 2 family members. Zinny's family is a bit strange (distracted mother, backbiting sisters, "uncle" who chases after his ghosts) so it's no surprise Zinny needs escape.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sharon Creech's "Chasing Red Bird" remains one of my favorite childhood books. The book unfolds the protagonist's, Zinnia "Zinny" Taylor's summer discovery of an overgrown trail in the woods behind her family's backyard. As Zinnia unearths the trail she finds her place in the world, answering the questions of her life and coming to an understanding of her family's hardships. Beautifully written, with a complex, yet relative story, this work is a must read for all. It definitely merits the 1998 award, ALA Best Book For Young Adult.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The style of this book reminded me of Walk Two Moons--there is also a lot in this book about the relationship of a young teen and her grandparents. In this story, Zinny's grandmother dies and Zinny thinks it's her fault and that her grandfather blames her. She becomes obsessed with clearing an old, overgrown trail to have something that will make her stand out from all of her brothers and sisters--and she discovers more about her grandparents in the process.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I personally loved this book. I started reading it, having nothing better to do, thinking I wouldn't enjoy it, but it had me hooked until the end! There is a great story line, with amusing characters, realistic life tragedies, and a happy "togetherness" quality throughout the book. With a just a touch of romance, and some adventure/suspense, this is a 'must-read' for anyone ages 9&up.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zinny uncovers a trail on her family's property, but also uncovers her family's secrets on the way.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is about Zinny, a 13-year-old girl, who discovers an overgrown trail behind her family's house. As she clears the trail she finds it is helpful to deal with the guilt as the result of deaths in her family. This is really a story of self-discovery...very nice read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grade: 4-7Genre: Realistic FictionThemes: Setting long term goals, young romance, loss, acceptance, guiltI totally enjoyed this book. Zinnia Taylor lives in a large family and sometimes feels lost in the bunch. She discovers an old overgrown trail and decides to find out where it goes. This involves camping on the trail for a few weeks during the summer. Her aunt and uncle live next door and they had a daughter who was Zinnia's age and died as a small child. Her aunt and uncle were never the same afterward. During her time on the trail, Zinnia begins to stop blaming herself for her cousin and her aunts deaths. She discovers a cabin on the trail that answers many of Zinnia's questions. There is also this little romance throughout the book about a boy named Jake who admires Zinnia and keeps bringing her gifts that he steals. She doesn't believe that anyone would like her and both jake and Zinnia find themselves that summer. I don't think that I would use this book as a read aloud but would have it in my library and recommend it to my students. There are great discussions you can have with this book. For example: What is the proper way to show affection for someone? Do yo have family members that are just a little bit different? Do you ever just want to be alone? There would be great literature circle questions.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"It started out as an ordinary summer. But the minute thirteen-year-old Zinny discovered the old, overgrown trail that ran through the woods behind her family's house, she realized that things were about to change.
Right from the start, Zinny knew that uncovering the trail would be more than just a summer project. It was her chance to finally make people notice her, and to have a place she could call her very own. But more than that, Zinny knew that the trail somehow held the key to all kinds of questions. And that the only way to understand her family, her Aunt Jessie's death, and herself was to find out where it went. "
I remember reading this book when it came out. I gobbled up ever word, every phrase; soaked up every wonderful scene of this book. Sharon Creech has a seemingly never-ending well of talent of which we are lucky enough to draw from.
Her characters have so much depth, she does not speak to her young readers as if they are idiots (as some authors do). It's very easy to become absorbed in the worlds and characters of her books and I remember this one being my very favorite. I connected strongly with Zinny, the main character, exploring the world to find herself, to unearth family secrets..
My favorite quote: "“Maybe it was the same with people: if you studied them,you'd see new and different things. But would you like what you saw? Did it depend on who was doing the looking?” - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5It has no plot I did not like it! The plot is boring
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book touched my heart in so many ways. Jake Boone, Redbirds story, zinny’s trail.the nature and I’d list them
All but it’s too many. It is just too good and is so touching
?% recommended! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/513-year-old Zinny has a slew of brothers and sisters and feels like she is never noticed. When she is in town, people invariably ask her, "Which one are you?" She carries guilt for giving her cousin the whooping cough she died from, though both girls were only four years old at the time. She also suspects that she played a role in her aunt's death.When she discovers a century-old trail that begins at the back of the family property and learns that it once led to a neighboring town miles and miles away, she decides that she must clear the whole trail, and she becomes obsessed with that mission.She is also trying to cope with 16-year-old neighbor boy who either has a crush on Zinny, or is trying to use her to get to her sister. Zinny can't figure out which, and that frustrates her immensely.This is a fine coming of age story about a less than perfect girl who the reader will care about and root for even when she is making her worst decisions.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovely coming of age story set in Kentucky. Zinny is just one of the passel of "Taylors" that no one can tell apart. At the beginning of the summer, she comes across an old trail and when she finds out that it was paved with shale at one time, she decides that she will repair all 20 miles of the Bybank-Chocton trail by herself. During all the time that this takes to do, she discovers a lot about her family, and herself. Redbird is the nickname of her aunt, recently deceased and she & her uncle catch glimpses of red in the forest, convinced that redbird is visiting them....or was it a cardinal?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book always kinda scared me when I was younger. The setting is often the protagonist alone in the woods with her memories and guilt and grief, and it freaked me out. But also I think thats one of the reasons I like this book. The story has the reader thinking about death but also family and personal journeys and ghosts (both literal and metaphorical). Its a good book.
I like this book and its important to me, but I want to make a note that the love interest subplot bugged the crap out of me because of the age gap. I dont think I saw it as a big deal when I read this book when I was younger but now Im old and cranky and a 16 year old being interested in a girl 3 years younger than him is NOT COOL and also this book did not promote good ideas about boundaries or consent. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I read "Walk Two Moons" by Creech a couple of years ago but wasn't aware she had written others, or that some of her characters and locations crossed novels, an interesting concept in itself. I enjoyed this book just as much as the first one and would argue that while this book is targeted to young adults it has much to say to less than young adults as well. Zinny is on a journey to repair an old pioneer trail that runs from her town to the next one, a journey of several miles physically. But she is really on a much longer journey and it is both a journey of self-discovery and of life. Repairing the trail and re-opening it helps her deal with loss, with love, with family, and with her own doubts and struggles. Through the work itself, and a few adventures along the way, she comes to an understanding that "there's a very fine line between people in your head and 'real' people out ther." A very enjoyable and readable book with a lot of food for thought even as you savor the wondrous story of a young woman on a search for life and meaning.
Book preview
Chasing Redbird - Sharon Creech
CHAPTER 1
TANGLED SPAGHETTI
Worms dangled in Aunt Jessie’s kitchen: red worms swarming over a lump of brown mud in a bowl. The bowl and the worms and the lump of mud were in a cross-stitched picture hanging above the stove.
When I learned to read, I made out these words in blue letters beneath the bowl: Life is a bowl of spaghetti… Those worms weren’t worms; they were spaghetti. I imagined myself rummaging among the twisted strands of pasta. That was my life?
There were more words: … every now and then you get a meatball. That mud was a meatball! I saw that meatball as a tremendous bonus you might unearth in all those convoluted spaghetti strands of your life. It was something to look forward to, a reward for all that slogging through your pasta.
In my thirteen years, I’ve had meatballs, and I’ve had lumps of mud, too.
My name is Zinny (for Zinnia) Taylor. I live with a slew of brothers and sisters and my parents on a farm in Bybanks, Kentucky. Our house fits snug up against Uncle Nate and Aunt Jessie’s, the two houses yoked together like one. Sometimes it seems too crowded on our side, and you don’t know who you are. You feel like everybody’s spaghetti is all tangled in one pot.
Last spring I discovered a trail at the back of our property—an old trail, overgrown with grass and weeds. I knew instantly that it was mine and mine alone. What I didn’t know was how long it was or how hard it would be to uncover the whole thing, or that it would turn into such an obsession, that I’d be as driven as a chicken-eating dog in a henhouse.
This trail was just like the spaghetti of me and my family, of Uncle Nate and Aunt Jessie, and of Jake Boone. It took a heap of doing to untangle it.
CHAPTER 2
THE QUIET ZONE
Strolling from our kitchen through the passage into Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate’s kitchen was like drifting back in time. On our side was a zoo of noises: the clomps and clumps of Ben, Will, and Sam zinging up and down the stairs; the blasting of Bonnie’s stereo; the bleeping of Gretchen’s computer; and the phone clanging off the wall for May.
But when you stepped through the passage, suddenly you’d be in the Quiet Zone of Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate’s house: silent as a tomb most of the time. There you’d see old-fashioned needlepoint pillows and wall hangings embroidered with poems and proverbs; you’d smell cinnamon and nutmeg; and you could trail your fingers over smooth counters and soft quilts.
I spent a lot of time in the Quiet Zone. My brothers and sisters didn’t like it there, but I’d come to regard Uncle Nate and Aunt Jessie, his Redbird, as my second parents. They didn’t have any children now, though once they’d had a daughter named Rose, who was born the same month and year that I was.
When Rose and I were four years old, I got whooping cough, and then Rose caught it from me. Rose had it bad, bad, bad. When she died, Aunt Jessie did a strange thing. She whipped out the bottom drawer of her huge dresser, plonked the drawer on a table, and lined it with Rose’s pink baby quilt. She placed Rose inside, and lit a dozen candles on the mantelpiece.
Aunt Jessie believed that a newborn baby’s first bed should be a dresser drawer (pulled out from the dresser, though), and a person’s last bed, before her coffin, should be a dresser drawer. If you put a dead person in a dresser drawer, she would be reborn as an innocent babe. Aunt Jessie had some peculiar beliefs.
I kept sneaking in to look at Rose, waiting for her to blink her sleepy eyes and sit up. People said, Don’t touch her!
but I did, once. I tapped her hand, and it scared the beans out of me. It wasn’t her hand. It was like a doll’s hand, stiff, neither warm nor cold. I studied my own hand, wondering if it was going to turn into a doll’s hand like Rose’s.
For two days, people filed in and out of that room, weeping over Rose in the dresser drawer. In my four-year-old mind, I knew I was responsible for Rose being in that drawer, and I waited for someone to punish me. Instead, people kept asking me if I was feeling better, and telling me how lucky I was. I didn’t feel very lucky. I felt like it was me in that drawer, or as if someone was going to lift Rose out and put me in instead.
You might think that because Rose had caught the whooping cough from me, and I was still living, that Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate would hold it against me; but they didn’t seem to. Instead, they took me on as their own special responsibility. I was a sickly, pathetic child, who caught every germ that floated through the house. Every time I got sick, Aunt Jessie would bundle me up and take me to her house and nurse me until I got better.
Sometimes she called me Rose instead of Zinny, which made me feel peculiar. I wondered if maybe I was Rose; maybe it was Zinny who had died, and I was Rose, and these were my real parents.
My mother was having babies right and left, and maybe she felt guilty that she had so many children while Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate had none. Maybe she also felt, as I later came to feel, that we owed Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate something. In any case, my parents let them fuss over me, and I liked being at their house, although I avoided that drawer. It was back in the dresser, but I’d imagine horrid things in it: dead bodies, especially.
When I wasn’t sick, Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate would take me on health walks around the farm. Uncle Nate might point out that because a red oak had open pores, its wood was used to make barrels that would hold dry things, but a white oak’s pores oozed sticky gum that formed a tight seal, so with white oak you could make ships. He and Aunt Jessie were regular walking encyclopedias.
Bingo!
Aunt Jessie would say, bending down to point out a buttercup or a fern. She’d pick up a plant fossil and tell me how it got there, millions of years ago. What a wonder!
The only things she didn’t think were wonders were snakes. She’d flinch at the sight of a crooked twig, mistaken for a snake. That’s one thing I can’t abide,
she’d say. A snake is not a wonder to me. I don’t know how God could have made such a creature.
At the end of our health walks, we’d pass the family cemetery where Rose was buried, but they never went too close to her grave. It was a strange thing about Rose. It was as if they’d erased her. All her toys were gone, all her clothes, all her pictures. I was having trouble remembering her. It was as if everything to do with Rose was put away in a drawer in my mind, and I couldn’t open that drawer.
Sometimes I’d go to the cemetery by myself and drape flowers on Rose’s headstone. I’d talk to Rose, telling her what had been happening, and asking her how she was doing. This was a major accomplishment for me, because I hardly ever spoke to live people.
It wasn’t that I was stupid (although a lot of teachers thought so when I first entered their classes), or that I didn’t like people. It was just that there didn’t seem to be a lot to say that someone wasn’t already saying. I liked listening.
CHAPTER 3
SINKING
Our Aunt Jessie was snatched away from us six months ago. In the middle of a cool spring night, she up and died. It was a terrible, terrible time.
Her death, so sudden and unexpected, left us all dazed and jittery, as we stumbled around trying to get our bearings. It was as if we’d all been slapped, hard, by a giant hand swooping down from the sky.
Uncle Nate took to wandering around the whole live-long day and sometimes the night, taking photographs and talking to himself and to invisible people. One of them was his Redbird, Aunt Jessie, and he spent most of his time trying to catch her. Sometimes he’d chase her through the field, only we couldn’t see her, just him, loping along with a gnarled stick in his hand. He wasn’t trying to hit her. He always carried that stick.
The stick was to beat the snakes with. I’d only ever seen one snake on our farm—a snake I had brought down from my trail—but still, Uncle Nate kept in practice. He whacked at anything that remotely resembled a snake. Once I caught him beating a belt, which was lying on the floor, nearly half to death. Another time I saw him beating the clothesline. I don’t know what he thought a snake would be doing strung up in the air like that with shirts hanging off it.
And me, I figured Aunt Jessie’s death was all my fault, because of things I’d done and said. There I was, Zinnia Taylor: agent of doom. I felt as if someone had tied me up and dropped me in the middle of a swamp, where I was in danger of sinking like a discarded meatball. I was like a walking mummy, all sealed up against the world, sinking, sinking, sinking.
It was about a month after her death that Jake Boone came back. We’ve always known Jake’s family, just as we’ve always known everyone else around here. Four or five years ago, Jake’s parents split up, and his mother took Jake and moved away, leaving Jake’s father all by himself. Then, shortly after Aunt Jessie died, Jake came back and tried to get me out of that swamp. He sure had an odd way of going about it, though.
CHAPTER 4
ONE-DAY SPECIAL
Jake Boone used to be a skinny little kid (as skinny as six o’clock,
Aunt Jessie said), and all I remembered about him was that once he cried at church when my sister May pushed him into a hedge because he’d tried to give her a daffodil. When Jake moved away, I forgot all about him, and that is the up-and-down truth.
The next time I saw Jake was after Aunt Jessie died, when I went into Mrs. Flint’s store one Friday afternoon. Behind the counter was a tall, broad-shouldered boy, who looked about sixteen years old (which is how old he was). He was wearing a white T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, which is not the way boys wear their T-shirts in this town. His hair was short and dark, and he smiled a big smile at me.
Howdy,
he said. Which one are you?
I’m used to this question, but I didn’t answer.
I know you’re a Taylor,
he said, because you look like a Taylor. But which one are you? Gretchen? May?
Zinny.
I was surprised at the sound of my own voice, which I hadn’t used much lately.
Naw! Can’t be! You were just a scrawny little pipsqueak when I saw you last.
And when was that?
I asked.
Heck—I haven’t seen you since the hogs et Grandma.
Hogs didn’t really eat his grandma. That’s just a Bybanks expression.
Don’t you know who I am?
he said.
Maybe I do and maybe I don’t.
(I didn’t.)
Jake—I’m Jake!
I looked him over. Jake Boone?
Yep.
He put both hands against his chest, as if he were making sure he was still there. That’s me, all right.
He didn’t look anything like that skinny little dirt dauber that May had stuck in the hedge.
What are you staring at?
he asked. Don’t you believe it’s me?
I didn’t. I thought maybe he was an impostor. You never know. In a movie I once saw, a lady’s husband came back from the war, and it took her two years to figure out that the man wasn’t her real husband after all. You look different.
Well, so do you,
he said. How’s your family? Sorry to hear about your aunt. How’s Uncle Nate taking it?
Hard.
How’s May and Bonnie and Will? And Gretchen? Ben? Sam?
He sure had a good memory. Fine,
I said.
And Sal Hiddle? You two still best friends?
She’s gone,
I said. Ohio.
That was another big empty hole in my life. My best friend Sal had been forced to move to Ohio with her father. Sal insisted that she was coming back to Bybanks, but I wasn’t convinced. That’s what her mother had said once, and her mother sure hadn’t returned.
Who’s living at their place? I saw a car there—
People named Butler. Renting,
I said.
Your sister May—she still have that hot temper?
Hotter than a boiled owl,
I said.
Jake picked up the flour I’d put on the counter. This all you need?
He rang it up, put the flour in a bag, snatched a package of cookies from the shelf behind him, and dropped them in the bag too.
You didn’t charge me enough,
I said, and I didn’t ask for cookies.
You’re sharp as a fence post, Zinny Taylor.
He pushed the bag across the counter. Flour’s on sale today. And when you buy flour, you get a free bag of cookies.
Mrs. Flint never does that.
New policy,
Jake said. It’s a one-day special.
Just before I left, he added, Maybe I’ll come on up and see you sometime.
Somebody’s always there,
I said, figuring he meant my whole family.
At dinner that night, my mother said, Where’d those cookies come from—the ones on the counter?
I explained about the one-day special.
Dad said, Mrs. Flint did that? A special?
No, Jake Boone.
My sister May, who is sixteen and proud of it, said, Jake Boone? He’s back? That skinny little doodlebug—
Dad said, I heard he and his mother are both back.
For good?
Mom asked.
Back home with Mr. Boone?
Gretchen asked.
That’s what I hear,
Dad said.
In the middle of this, Uncle Nate sat quietly at one end of