Flyaway: How a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings [Paperback]

Suzie Gilbert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2010

Suzie Gilbert discovered her true calling when she began working at a local animal hospital. Eventually, she started bringing abused and unwanted parrots home, and volunteering at a local raptor rehabilitation center. From there it was a short flight to her ultimate commitment: Flyaway, Inc., the nonprofit wild bird rehabilitation center she ran out of her own home.

With heart and delightful wit, Gilbert chronicles daily life in her household-cum-bird-hospital, and recounts the resulting chaos as she, her husband, and their two young children struggled to live in a home where parrots shrieked Motown songs and recuperating herons took over the spare bathroom. Flyaway is a remarkable story of compassion for and dedication to beautiful creatures—and the importance of pursuing even the most unlikely of dreams.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Unique and engaging . . . [Gilbert] shows reveals in elegant prose how every creature has value, and how a voice for one is voice for all.” (Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds )

“Charms, delights, and educates while providing a fascinating tale of love and devotion to the feathered creatures that share our increasingly crowded world.” (Joanna Burger, author of The Parrot Who Owns Me )

“Fascinating . . . . A testament to the challenges we all face when we love another being.” (Stacey O'Brien, author of Wesley the Owl )

“Funny and insightful. . . . Most of us see birds through binoculars and windows. Suzie Gilbert has entered their lives.” (Carl Zimmer, author of Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life and Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea )

“Readers will acquire education plenty from Gilbert’s discussions of the creatures she encounters and the challenges rehabbers face.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“Gilbert’s prose reads easily, ushered along by her clear, knowledgeable explanations of biology, medicine, natural history, nutrition, and animal behavior. . . . Strongly recommended.” (Henry T. Armistead, Library Journal )

About the Author

Suzie Gilbert lives in New York State's Hudson Valley, where she launched Flyaway, Inc., in 2002. She is also the author of the children's book Hawk Hill.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 Reprint edition (March 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061563137
• ISBN-13: 978-0061563133
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,024,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grackles & Vultures, Alive Alive-O, March 30, 2009

By 

Newtown CT - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings (Hardcover)

As soon as I began reading `Flyaway', I got that warm fuzzy feeling signaling that I was in for the kind of read that makes me chomp at the bit to get under the covers with my reading light for an all-nighter. When we read the first few pages of any good book, the mind automatically connects us to similar material that gave us the same pleasurable feeling.
To compare Suzie Gilbert's `Flyaway' to James Herriot's `All Creatures Great and Small' is not a stretch. Here, once again, as in Herriot's wonderful peek into the rustic life of an English vet, we are treated to an insider's view of the sacrifices, lessons, and rewards of a family whose life revolves around a parent who is not only caretaker to her children, but to a constant parade of needy beings of other species. In Gilbert's case, the creatures are winged, wild, and ownerless--grackles, crows, robins, owls, hawks, and vultures. They limp through Gilbert's door to be healed and coached back into the wild again.
For those of us animal lovers who have the natural sympathies but lack the time, place, patience, and slightly mad passion to engage ourselves this deeply with the natural world, this book is a must-read. In it, I was constantly reminded that the price of love (any kind of love) is steep--and sometimes paradoxically and painfully akin to cruelty. We must learn to let go of what we love the most when it is best to do so for the object of our devotion and for our own sanity.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a review of Flyaway, March 18, 2009

By 

Wray & Nancy Haydock (Turlock, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings (Hardcover)

What a remarkable book! I am a retired teacher and I have spent the last 6 years volunteering at the Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center. It has become my avocation. I have taken a lot of classes to learn about rehabing and I am now the Songbird leader and the person who takes animals out to schools, etc. to do presentations. I could relate to a lot of Suzie's experiences. Her book gave me SO MUCH to think about; a great philosophy and many good reasons to become a rehaber. She makes you cry, laugh and truly feel what she is feeling. She shares her family and all their adventures with wildlife. She shows how important it is to let go once in a while to get some rest and retain your sanity after tending to so many birds in need 24-7. Suzie has a way with words in this very well written book. I did not want it to end. I hope she writes another book soon.

Nancy Haydock

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for birders, September 9, 2009

By 

Jack Doyle (Cascade Head, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings (Hardcover)

Ever wonder what happens to birds that get injured? Well this book will tell you about all the people across the country that devout countless hours seeing that these birds are given the chance to survive. Through this very personal account of one persons quest as a bird rehabber you will travel along on that path. Be prepared to learn, in detail what happens to birds of all kinds when they end up at a persons home that cares for them. This book sails along with a style that is hard to describe, one minute you are getting a detailed description on the various chemicals that can kill birds, followed a few pages later with Suzie explaining what life altering experience she had as a 16 year old while in boarding school. I found myself laughing out load one minute and a few minutes later having tears run down my cheeks while reading this book. I guarantee that you will learn something about birds, but this is not a text book, it's a personnel life story that just happens to be associated with birds.

Jack Doyle
President, Audubon Society of Lincoln City