A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe

Starred review from January 6, 2025
Poet Browne (Vinyl Moon) delivers a mournful remembrance of those who died during the pandemic in this love letter to New York City and its resilient teen population as they adjust to a changed world. Beginning with “Chorus:
Wild Fire,” Browne introduces best friends Electra and Hyacinth, two “Trini-to-the-bone” city girls who lament unkindness while bolstering their own benevolent attitudes in the face of world tragedy. These interstitials act as a grounding point to which the narrative tirelessly returns (“This is why Electra and I are chorus. We have seen it all”) as mesmerizing poetry and at times gut-wrenching prose combine to present a series of seamlessly interconnected stories following myriad characters. There’s Malachi, who is navigating online classes while longing for in-person connection; Tariq, who must be mindful of his susceptible grandmother’s health; delivery driver Tam, who’s caring for her younger sister after their parents’ deaths to Covid; and others. Each story—some of which occur in jails including Rikers and in neighborhood bodegas—serves to further flesh out this powerfully humanizing portrayal of N.Y.C. and its residents, making for an emotionally impactful read. Ages 12–up.

Starred review from January 15, 2025
Young people and their families try to survive during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Two city girls with island roots," Jamaican Electra and Trinidadian Hyacinth, are best friends whose voices serve as the book's chorus, threading together individual stories and adding context, reflection, and direction. Their interspersed conversations are readers' touchpoints for poems (in varied forms, including haiku and acrostic) and prose (which encompasses a letter, email, and a to-do list). Together the entries evoke the experiences of teens in New York City who are searching for love, hope, community, and liberation amid the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic. Browne's use of varied formats and content offers a fresh and incisive look at the impact of the pandemic on young people's lives as they dated, worked, attended school, and grew up while their world shut down around them. Grief becomes a palpable presence, as heightened responsibilities and innumerable losses demand from teens levels of grace, honesty, and care that many adults bowed under. The characters' voices feel as authentic as if they were next to you--or, maybe, six feet away--close enough to feel the wrenching pain of hoping a grandmother lives long enough for a vaccine to be available, close enough to understand the ecstasy of a first kiss after months with no physical contact. Heavy, important, powerful and evergreen; remembers kids during the time when the world stopped. (author's note)(Fiction. 13-18)

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Starred review from February 1, 2025
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* The author calls this book "a quilt of stories, poems, fables, and woes circling the moment we all survived." What was survived, of course, was the COVID-19 plague, while "we" refers to the teens of color who endured, even when, in several tragic cases, their parents didn't. In form, the book is a collection of linked short stories with the occasional poem interspersed. Leitmotifs of the collection are sadness and loneliness. One teenage girl, who lives, parentless, with her older sister, longs for a calico cat for company. Electra and Hyacinth, two "city girls with island roots" (Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively), who met through the foster-care system, are luckier, having each other for company. Together, they provide choruses that help link the stories, the largest number of which feature a nearly 18-year-old boy, Malachi, who lives with his younger siblings, MJ and Lil'Monti. Their father, whom readers encounter in two later stories, has been in prison for four years for his revolutionary speeches and writings; their mother went out looking for an inhaler for MJ and never came back. The book boasts memorable characters and beautiful writing--especially the poems. It is singularly relevant in its unsparing examination of the pandemic and its impact on young lives, ideal for both classroom use and independent reading.

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Starred review from March 1, 2025

Gr 9 Up-Browne's newest title follows interwoven threads of folks living in New York City from the lockdown through the availability of vaccines in a mixture of prose, poetry, and short stories. The plot mainly follows six youths and their families: Hyacinth, a Caribbean American 15-year-old living in foster care; Malachi and his family missing their father who is incarcerated; Tariq, a nonbinary teen who is caring for their grandmother amid her memory loss; Zamira, who lost both parents and is in the care of her sister; Pops, who is from Yemen and works at a bodega; and Emerelda, who is queer and recently graduated. The collection of voices presents the experience of poverty during the pandemic and how young people helped their families survive while living with depression and anxiety with limited support from the overtaxed social services. The topics include reflections on loss of community and connection as well as concerns about climate change. Browne includes footnotes to authenticate statistics associated with lives lost and treatment of those who were incarcerated during the pandemic. VERDICT An essential purchase to explore grief associated with the pandemic; give to fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Elisabet Velasquez.-Taylor Skorski

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