Author-illustrator Wood’s picture book tells a tale of Brightness, who has the body of a girl, the head of a bird, and the world at her feet.

Brightness was “born of the sea, delivered to the sand,” and named by the Sun. She surmises that she was named Brightness for her potential. However, she has no wings, and being part bird, part girl, she doesn’t know where she fits. The birds won’t accept her because she can’t fly, and humans are scared of her. As a fledgling, Brightness found a blue feather: “She still feels like The Peculiar Bird Girl but at least… she’s The Peculiar Bird Girl with a feather in her pocket.” She also makes a list of things she can do: “I can have a picnic below the garden of suns, / when I focus on what I love, I have endless fun!” Wood’s inimitable illustrations feature colorful, abstract painted backgrounds with patchy sky, sea, and land, which contrasts with the heavy black pencil, pen, and coal of the sun and sea. Detailed penwork, depicting figures or abstract evocations of the narrative tone, guides readers through nuanced themes and emotions. The prose is sparse, elegant, and effortlessly poetic; the story’s conceptual nature invites conversation, creative interpretation, and critical thinking.

An examination of the human spirit with a singular protagonist and enchanting artwork.

A teenage poet, burdened by her dysfunctional family, reaches a breaking point in this YA novel.

When Lauren’s father, an actor and addict, left the family and her mother’s bipolar condition worsened, she was left to run the household and protect and care for her mom and younger sisters while also attending high school. The teen’s narration is consistently compelling as she struggles to cope: “I’ve only been on this planet for seventeen years, nine months, and eight days, and I’m already exhausted. But I hate complaining….Everything is fine….I have everything completely, totally, utterly handled.” After two years with no help other than her grandmother’s financial support, Lauren, an aspiring poet, dreams of attending a prestigious writing fellowship when she turns 18. But how can she abandon her vulnerable mother and siblings: Matty, a hurt, snarky 14-year-old; and sweet Sara, who’s 4? When her father suddenly reappears, she feels anger, skepticism, and hope, by turns—but change comes only when Lauren attempts to redefine herself and escape her burden. There’s nothing glib about the protagonist’s emotional journey in this work by playwright/novelist Wood. Lauren resents that her parents’ difficulties have forced her to become the family’s responsible parental figure. She’s embarrassed by her mother’s happy whirling in grocery-store aisles and by the fact that she has to retrieve her, half-dressed, from a public fountain. Yet the author also makes it clear that although Lauren yearns not to be her family’s “fixer,” she also cares too much about her family to relinquish the role. The teen movingly shows compassion and empathy for her mother, seeing the confusion and fear underneath her mother’s exuberance. Her annoyance at adolescent Matty’s sarcasm is tempered, too, by her understanding of the anger that motivates it. Wood also ably gets across the emotion in Lauren’s frank observations, her word-of-the-day journaling, her e.e. cummings–inspired poetry, and her recurring visions of “Dream Lauren” in her sleep. Finally, she skillfully frames Lauren’s defining moment of freedom.

A well-crafted and resonant novel about an overburdened teenage girl’s journey toward self-realization.