Kept grounded by her overworked parents, her very pregnant sister and four rambunctious younger brothers, Myra yearns to stretch her wings, but when presented with an opportunity to travel to the Galapagos Islands, she is not sure she has the courage to fly so far from home.
Myra likes things clean and simple, so when she loses her boyfriend, her job and possibly her whole future in a matter of days, her first priority is to get everything back in place. But when Pete, an eccentric graduate student, lands in Myra’s life, she finds that organization might be for the birds. Soon Myra is dressing up as a giant chicken, organizing a rescue for lost hunters and even delivering a baby. Suddenly, winning a scholarship to do research halfway around the world does not seem so out of reach. A familiar premise—girl realizes her boyfriend is a jerk and then meets someone infinitely better—is made fresh with quirky particulars. Readers will relate to Myra's simultaneous desire for life to be different and exciting and fear of change. Chapter titles defining avian terms provide a narrative framework.
A sweet story that will appeal to romantics and birders alike. (Fiction. 12 & up)
