Pérez - Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers

Mal rocks!Victoria Jamieson, author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honorwinning Roller Girl

Charming.Kirkus Reviews

Exuberant.Publishers Weekly

A fun romp.School Library Journal

A riotous, raucous conglomeration of Zine art, Mexican-American punk rock, and a nicely flawed protagonist.SLJ Fuse8 Blog

Equal parts witty and sharp.Bustle.com

2018 Pura Belpr Author Honor Book

2018 ALSC Notable Childrens Book

2018 Toms Rivera Mexican American Childrens Book Award Winner

2017 ABA Indies Introduce Title

Kids Indie Next List Pick

E.B. White Read-Aloud Middle Reader Award Finalist

2018 Boston GlobeHorn Book Fiction and Poetry Honor Book

Amelia Bloomer List

CCBC Choices 2018

2018 Bank Street Best Childrens Books of the Year

Junior Library Guild Selection

NPR Best Books of 2017

Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction of 2017

School Library Journal Best Books of 2017

Horn Book Fanfare Selection

Publishers Weekly Flying Start

Center for the Study of Multicultural Childrens Literature Best Books of 2017

NY Public Library Best Books for Kids 2017

Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2017

Evanston Public Library 101 Great Books for Kids 2017

Seattle Public Library Top 10 Childrens Chapter Books of 2017

UPenn Graduate School of Education Best Books of 2017

2019 Texas Lone Star Reading List

20192020 Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee

20182019 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Childrens Book Award Nominee

20182019 Sunshine State Young Readers Award Nominee

2018 Great Lakes, Great Reads Award Winner

2017 Nerdy Book Award Winner

Thought-provoking, timely, and laugh-out-loud funnyStrange 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

The pencil Ofelia tapped against her reporters notebook was part of a set, a last-day-of-school gift from her favorite teacher, Ms. Niggli. Shed 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 didnt 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 mothers car on that first Monday morning of summer break was the same thing she saw every Monday morning. There was Doa 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 Doa Amalias house and never left. Someone on their streetno one remembers whonamed him Chucho, and it stuck.

Chucho had the prettiest burnt-orange feathers, but his handsomeness didnt outweigh his bad habits. The rooster pooped on cars when Doa Amalia had company parked out front. And if that wasnt bad enough, he crowed all day, like his internal alarm clock was out of whack, drawing the wrath not just of Ofelias 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 Doa Amalia threw at the bird with all the strength her seventy-something-year-old arm could muster. The can missed its mark but startled the rooster who flew from his perch, squawking angrily as he strutted down the street.

Ofelia watched her mom make her way toward the car, purse hanging on her right shoulder, keys in hand.

Dale, Doa Amalia! Mrs. Castillo called out. If you hit that bird, Ill make arroz con gallo for us.

Ha-ha, Ofelia thought. She pulled off her glasses and wiped them on her T-shirt. She didnt need them to see that the two women were now laughing like it was the first time her mom had made that joke.