Customer Reviews

One Bird (Edge Books)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Megumi is a high school tenth-grader living in Japan in 1975. Megumi's life is a rather hard, cold, and lonely one. Her mother has left to go live with her grandfather using the excuse that he needs someone to take care of him, but Megumi knows that this is a lie.The only reason that her mother left was because she and her father coudln't stand each other, but getting a divorce would shame the family and the family's name. Megumi is very confused in the beginning of the book, if her mother loved her then why did she leave without her? Megumi's father and grandmother aren't exactly perfect guardians to top it off. Megumi's father is almost never home either out on business or visiting his girlfriend in Hiroshima who owns a bar and doesn't have a very honorable name. Megumi's grandmother is a cranky old woman who always complains about Megumi. Megumi meets a young, inspiring veterinarian by the name of Dr. Mituzani. Dr. Mituzani has had a hard past as well, but shows a strength that Megumi admires. Megumi helps take care of the birds at Dr. Mituzani's office, and finds much joy in watching sick or wounded birds heal. Many eventful changes occur in Megumi's life; Megumi stops believing in God, she loses her close friendship with her former best friend, and she learns that when her mother left her she missed Megumi as much as she said she did, and she truly did love Megumi.

My friend was the first to read this book and I started after her after grabbing it to do a report. Most the time I barley get litte over half way through then I'm done. Not with this book. I stayed up for hours becuase it's one of those books you can't put down. The author is so good you acually feel like you know Megumi and what she is going through.

This book was a remarkable. It described the difficult four months that Megumi had to live through without her mother. I found this book not only interesting but emotional as well. It was well-written with lots of description allowing me to feel as if I was in the book along with the other characters. I recommend this book to anyone who has not yet read it.

One Bird by Kyoko Mori is a beautifully written, heartbreaking novel. Mrs. Mori puts so much heart and so many crafts into a 256 page novel. Megumi is a 10th grader in Japan in 1975. Megumi's mother leaves her to go to a more rural part of Japan to live with Megumi's grandfather. Her excuse is that Megumi's grandfather needs her help to take care of him. Megumi knows that what her mother has told her is a lie. The reason that her mother is leaving is because she can't stand her husband. It's not that her father needs help. Megumi's mother wants to keep her family's respect so Megumi's mother knows she can't divorce her husband. Megumi lives with her grandmother and her father though he is always away with his girlfriend who is not well respected. Megumi's grandma is a grouch and always has some complaint about Megumi. Megumi meets a young, respected veterinarian by finding a hurt bird in the ground and taking it to her. young veterinarian likes Megumi and helps her as much as she can. Mituzani, the veterinarian, helps Megumi understand and accept what her mother did and why she did it. Megumi enjoys working with Mrs. Mituzani and watching animals heal. It gives Megumi a sense of security.

Megumi's life, once so lonely and sad, gains happiness as the book grows in to a full grown story. Kyoko Mori tells a story of sadness and loneliness. But as the book grows your hope for Megumi grows, too. Kyoko Mori writes, that there is always room for hope and even in the most depressing of depressing tales there is always a way out. There is always a to be and to find happiness. This is a wonderful novel and I think that girls 11 to 14would enjoy it most. It is very intellectual and though it is not what I might call "gripping" it is in a
watching animals heal. It gives Megumi a sense of security. Way gripping. Your mind becomes filled with predictions and with questions that you need to be answered right away. So I read until I was done and then I thought about the book and what Kyoko Mori brought to life. I read this book as a 35 year old woman and still thoroughly enjoyed it and understood her sadness and troubles. I read this book to my kids at school and the girls and some of the boys enjoyed the book the most. One of my students a girl loved the book so much and as soon as I was done she read it again. She understood how Megumi felt and connected her life to her own. Her parents were divorced and they had been fighting for a long time before they had actually gotten divorced.
This is a wonderful book and I strongly recommend it. Even though it is sentimental it is still enjoyable and wonderful.

I loved the book for its images--it taught me a lot and made me much more interested in learning about birds, for one!--and the gentle way it dealt with all the characters--even the unsympathetic ones have their "moments" and their perspectives are sought out and thought about. The narrator's voice is self-critical and aware of itself changing, which I like--and the narrator is not always "right"--events get reconsidered and reinterpreted several times in the course of the novel, and sometimes the narrator simply admits that she can't yet understand something, but maybe someday will. This book gave me the sensation of living and growing, beginning to understand things about the world, and learning to avoid snap judgments and prejudices. I feel like the book opened me up instead of telling me what to think.

I personally felt that this book wasn't as strong as Shizuko's Daughter, it is however, basically the same plot. The mother is not longer with in this case, Megumi, and the father doesn't care. He had a lover on a distant island, so someone moves in to care for Megumi. This book does contain many subplots, Megumi works for Dr. Mizutani, and discovers so much more about herself, about birds, and about caring. They develop a close bond, sharing their stories, and helping eachother. With the Kato's, it is a different bond, they had once been close, when Megumi realizes what she knew all along "There was no God" after admitting her loss of faith, she realized she could no longer be close friends with the Kato's and breaks connections. Toru, moves in from Tokyo and they develop an even closer bond, maybe even further than friendship...?
Her mother lives with her grandfather and Megumi must find the courage to stand up for herself, to get what she wants, to visit her mother...

Her father seems to stand up for her, and yet neglect her. Her grandmother seems to care not-at-all, but she cares enough to make the sandwiches, and all of those stories "Grandmother is really a nice person" what does it mean?
This book is great, but lacks the tension, the strong feelings, that her first book had. but read it anyway, you won't regret it...! ^_^

A terrific coming-of-age story. Kyoko Mori expressed the pain, fear, and lonliness of what the character was going through. I loved the book. If Kyoko Mori reads this, I want her to know I truly loved it and couldn't put it down. Thank you again, Ms. Mori!

beautifully written, and very interesting. It was hard to put down, once started.

This book was really interesting. In the beginning, it was really sad, but it showed me the injustices in marriage. I'm glad it all worked out in the end, though. This book was written in easy-to-read sentences. I'd recommend it to anyone who's having family problems.

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like this author very much. All of her books boil down to her past. It's understandable if she can't put down her mother's suicide but to write so much stuff on the same topic... Like "Shizuko's Daughter", this book is about a daughter growing up alone. Unfortunately, I was not in the mood for her boohooing all over again.

All I could think of while I was reading that book was "What is this?". Like the author, I am Japanese and have spent most of my life in Japan and am getting read to move back to Japan. Again, she stresses the discipline of the Japanese public school system. From reading her memoirs, I know that she personally never attended one. She simply listened to all the bad about them, and portrays them in a negative way.

Basically speaking? It's another way for her to boohoo about her past and to put down Japan. She's biased, and I don't recommend this stuff to anyone.