You Are a Bird - Book Review

Breezy Van Lit, author of You Are a Bird, writes an allegory of a caged bird’s desire for freedom to address the reader’s perceived feelings of being trapped. The author’s writing style is concise and clear. This inspirational novella may be geared to middle-grade reading levels but is also relatable for adults who feel they were created to do more.

Written in 2nd person point of view and in present tense, the reader is pulled into the unusual world of a caged bird. You, the Bird, and by extension, the reader, have no recollection of having ever been outside the confines of the surrounding cage. You sense that there is something beyond the cage, beyond the confines of the room in which the cage hangs, and beyond the window that reveals a magical outside.

A Man enters the room to present You with everything you need to survive: water, seeds, and a cleaned-up cage. You can communicate with Kaz, a cat that is able to go outside and report what he sees, and Fay, a fish who is confined to a bowl of water. Throughout the story, the Man paints pictures on wood that he then cuts into puzzle pieces. Life in the cage is a puzzle to the Bird.

Yes, the Bird can think. He questions his confinement in the cage. Can he escape? At last, he is given the opportunity to leave his cage and fly around the Man’s room. The door is closed. The window is sealed. He confronts limited freedom and doesn’t know how to deal with it. The Man catches him and returns him to his cage, drawing a black sack over the cage at night. 

Within the darkness, the Bird assesses his failures. He determines to regain his physical strength and establishes an exercise routine. His attitude changes from defeat to a desire for something more. By acting on his goals and perceived future, the Bird experiences love and freedom. By association, so can You.

The author contrasts the Bird’s limited experiences and knowledge of his confined environment with the dreams the Bird has of another world. The reader, regardless of age, can easily relate to his own personal, social, or cultural confinement with his dreams of the future in this philosophically-probing novella, You are a Bird.

The reader is left with the incentive to “refuse to be caged.”