Chasing Redbird [School & Library Binding]

Sharon Creech (Author), Marc Burckhardt (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Thirteen-year-old Zinnia Taylor uncovers family secrets and self-truths while clearing a mysterious settler trail that begins on her family's farm in Kentucky.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Always the quiet (and often forgotten) middle child in a bustling family, Zinnia's life begins to change when she stumbles upon a hidden, overgrown pathway that stretches from the edge of her family's farm into the great unknown. Determined to find where the path leads, Zinnia begins the daunting task of uncovering brambles and weeds along every inch of its length. In powerful, honest, down-home prose, Newbery-winner Sharon Creech delivers a dazzling portrait of a girl who's not afraid to journey into her family's mysterious past in order to find her own way into adulthood. Watching Zinnia bloom will warm your heart. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Newbery Medal-winner Sharon Creech's story of a young girl discovering that life is a tangle of mysteries, surprises, and everyday occurrences-a journey that often needs unraveling and that sometimes must be traveled alone.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 272 pages
• Publisher: Turtleback (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613065360
• ISBN-13: 978-0613065368
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (181 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,075,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sharon Creech is the author of the Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons and the Newbery Honor Book The Wanderer. Her other work includes the novels Hate That Cat, The Castle Corona, Replay, Heartbeat, Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, Ruby Holler, Love That Dog, Bloomability, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Chasing Redbird, and Pleasing the Ghost, as well as three picture books: A Fine, Fine School; Fishing in the Air; and Who's That Baby? Ms. Creech and her husband live in upstate New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book by Sharon Creech!, November 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chasing Redbird (Library Binding)

This book was an awesome book. It was about a girl named Zinnia (Zinny for short). Zinny is kind of lost in her big family with her three sisters, her three brothers, her parents, and her aunt and uncle. When a tragic incident happens with her Aunt Jessie, she is beside herself with grief, and is convinced that what happened was her fault. One day, she is walking behind her house, and sees an overgrown trail, and decides to uncover the whole thing, from her little town all the way to Chocton. It turns out to be a very long way, and constantly along the trail, she finds things that relate to what is happening in her life at the moment. The end is very satisfying, and I am convinced that anyone (girls especially) from the ages of 10 to probably 14 or so will really enjoy this thought-provoking novel.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Family, changes, and life in general to a warm young woman, April 29, 2006

By 

S. Silverman "ReaderGeode" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chasing Redbird (Paperback)

Set in Kentucky like several of her other books, this is the story of an extended family living in a duplex of sorts on the family land. Zinny Taylor, the thirteen year old daughter of one of the two families is the story's first-person teller. She tells us of her own family and that of her neighboring uncle and aunt. The aunt and uncle lost their only child, a daughter the same age as Zinny, as a toddler. Zinny herself is from a brood of some half dozen siblings but is the one closest to the uncle and aunt. Zinny sets the task for herself of clearing a long-overgrown path that runs from behind her home to a town nearby. She is emotionally working through that beloved aunt's passing away, but also through what may be her first bit of genuine romantic interest from a fellow who has returned to town. In some ways this is the story of Zinny's going through grieving. But it is also a tale of a loving family told in realistic ways through the voice of a realistic main character. Another fine work from a favorite YA author. If you like this one, Walk Two Moons is even better, and just as good are Absolutely Normal Chaos and The Wanderer.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chasing Redbird Book Review, September 15, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Chasing Redbird (Paperback)

This is an adventurous story about a thirteen year old girl named Zinny. Zinny has two brothers and three sisters. Zinny is the outcast child of the family. A lot of the time Zinny stays with her Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate. She was very close to them. Zinny's aunt Jessie dies and her life is changed a lot. After her aunt Jessie died Jake Bone (an old friend of Zinny's family) comes around and starts to give items to Zinny a lot of different items. Zinny's sister May is very mad because she has a crush on Jake Bone. One day Zinny found out Jake was a thief. He stole cookies from miss flints store (supposedly). Zinny figured that out because she knew Miss Flint would never give out free anything and Jake had said that he got them for free. A couple of weeks after Aunt Jessie's death uncle Nate started acting very weird. He was always chasing something around with a stick and trying to catch it. But no one knew what he was doing. One day he came home and started to wave around a camera and he was screaming "proof, proof, PROOF" the whole family asked him what he was doing and he said "its proof. Of what." The children said of what "MY REDBIRD" he yelled. Before Aunt Jessie's death, Zinny found a trail and after aunt Jessie died she felt like she had to finish it. Because that's what she thought aunt Jessie wanted her to keep uncovering it. She felt that if she didn't finish it she would die. And she was scared that they would put her in the death drawer. Because Aunt Jessie believed that a persons first and last resting place should be in a drawer.