Strange Birds

Chapter 1
 
The pencil Ofelia tapped against her reporter s notebook was part of a set, a last-day-of-school gift from her favorite teacher, Ms. Niggli. She d given them to all the newspaper staffers who were moving on to middle school. Ofelia knew they were nice pencils. Not generic twelve for-two-dollars pencils. Each one was topped with a black eraser, and on its natural wood color was a quote by a man named Woody Guthrie: All you can write is what you see.
She had asked Ms. Niggli what the quote meant, and Ms. Niggli had answered in the way teachers do. What do you think it means?
Ofelia hoped it didn t mean that all you could write was, literally, what you saw. Woody Guthrie had obviously never lived in Sabal Palms, Florida.
What she saw outside the window of her mother s car on that first Monday morning of summer break was the same thing she saw every Monday morning. There was Doña Amalia from next door wheeling her overflowing blue recycling bin across her driveway. The wheels crunched over gravel as she struggled to drag it. Once at the curb, she opened the lid and pulled out the topmost object. Then she aimed it at Chucho.
Chucho was a rooster that had shown up one day after a tropical storm battered their town. He moved into the tree in front of Doña Amalia s house and never left. Someone on their street no one remembers who named him Chucho, and it stuck.
Chucho had the prettiest burnt-orange feathers, but his handsomeness didn t outweigh his bad habits. The rooster pooped on cars when Doña Amalia had company parked out front. And if that wasn t bad enough, he crowed all day, like his internal alarm clock was out of whack, drawing the wrath not just of Ofelia s neighbor, but of the entire street.
As a rinsed-out can of Goya black beans flew through the air, it occurred to Ofelia that the only thing that really changed from week to week was the item Doña Amalia threw at the bird with all the strength her seventy-something-year

Celia C. Pérez

Praise and accolades for STRANGE BIRDS:

Washington Post Best Children's Books of 2019
An ALSC Notable Children's Book
Kirkus Best Children's Books of 2019
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books of 2019
CSMCL's Best Multicultural Children's Books of 2019
A 2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List selection
Charlie May Simon Book Award
New Jersey Garden State Book Award
South Carolina Children's Book Award
South Dakota Children's Book Award


"Strange Birds respects its readers intelligence and sophistication. Pérez s charming story explores what is means to belong to a community while being willing to stage small but significant revolutions, all the while reveling in the joy of childhood."
Erika L. Sanchez, New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter for The New York Times Book Review

"Thought-provoking, timely, and laugh-out-loud funny Strange Birds explores friendship, community, and the role each of us plays in creating a better world."
Aisha Saeed, New York Times bestselling author of Amal Unbound

"Strange Birds is an inspiring story about the power of truth, and of true friends."
Rebecca Stead, New York Times bestselling author of the Newbery Medal winner When You Reach Me

 "Writing with wry restraint that's reminiscent of Kate DiCamillo... a beautiful tale of the value of friendship against unconquerable odds." 
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

 "Four unique personalities form a crew with a mission in this engaging, well-plotted second novel from Pérez."
Publishers Weekly, starred review

 "A perfect title for school and public libraries seeking realistic books about friendship."
School Library Journal, starred review

 "Perfect for preteens becoming aware that friendships can be complicated, and that the world is more so."
The Horn Book, starred