Of a Feather
By: Dayna Lorentz / Narrated By: Pete Cross, Stephanie Willing
Length: 7 hrs and 6 min
Refreshing story of having the courage to love after so much pain and loss
Oh goodness! At the risk of yet again baring m’ soul and risking TMI: I was born a nutbag, remain a nutbag, and only now, yeeeears into m’ 50s can I say with a loud and courageous HUZZAH: I’m soooo glad m’ husband and I chose animals over having children. I always kiiiinda knew I’d be an inappropriate parent, but I’m now happy that I also did NOT pass the genetic black bean onto a child to deal with all THAT entails.
TMI? My apologies, but it’s to preface the setup for Of a Feather, the WONderful story as penned by Dayna Lorentz and narrated so very well with Stephanie Willing as our dear young heroine, Reenie, and Pete Cross as the aDORable great horned owl, Rufus. You see, that genetic black bean has sown chaos into her life, not striking her but her Mom: Crushing, searing, incapacitating depression. The story opens with Reenie being shuttled out, in the dead of night, to yet another relative to care for her as Mom is hospitalized and as staying with Grandma is soooo NOT gonna happen this time ‘round.
Enter the clipped tones and crusty demeanor of Beatrice, a woman who lives in a ramshackle ol’ place of a house and who has? Well, first night there, Reenie discovers the woman’s daughter is long gone, living with dad after A Divorce. You see, Reenie is way hyper vigilant, MUST know her surroundings, never knows when she’ll be yanked out of reality and thrust into an uncaring System. She makes mum of her knowledge, but Beatrice is quite open with Reenie, letting her know that she’s well and truly at a kinda sorta Home… for now, Reenie muses…
But also? Kinda sorta fanTAStic about Beatrice is Red, the red-tailed hawk that Beatrice keeps as companion and partner. Bea is nutty, and beYONd knowledgeable, about birds, particularly falconry. This fascination with Red starts slooowly breaking through the noise of the buzz in Reenie’s head/body which always tells her: Be safe! Don’t let your guard down! Don’t open up cuz things’ll change, and NOT in a good way! Soon, Bea is sharing her knowledge and the duties involved in caring for a raptor. And soon? A trap set to capture a passage hawk (One caught during the fraught migration) traps instead Second, a young great horned owl who is injured and quite in dire need of care. Second, born second, saw his mother being hit by a car and taken and sped far far away.
He’s frightened, he’s hurt, he’s downcast.
He’s in need of a good friend.
Reenie takes to him, seeking to comfort, nurture, and keep safe, just as she’d very much like those things for herself. This story, with its new friendships, its methodical building of trust, its slow thawing of hearts long-used to staying cold and aloof, are soooo what’s needed for youngsters to listen to. By this point in history, can we not just admit that each person who has a child does the best they can but WOEfully mucks it up, leaving lessons to be learned through wondrous stories such as this? Soooo good for younguns who feel they don’t have a say in how their lives will be going, soooo good to hear about animals as boon companions.
AWEsome narration by Willing, who does just the right amount of fear behind EVERY thought Reenie has, and Cross, who does Rufus with all his whacked-out views on humanity and who learns his own very special lessons in confidence, and it all closes with the hap-hap-HAPpiest of endings. Add the very end which is a note by Lorentz about how her daughter’s love for owls and her own work with the foster system in Vermont led her to research and writing, then wind it all up for the very very end with a Q&A about wildlife and birds, and brother/sister, I was done in.
Deep thoughts experienced? Check. Deep feelings/lump(s) in throat? Double check!
Dry eye for the ending?
Nooooo! Tissues please!!!
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