Bird Boy by Catherine Bruton

In today’s blog, Catherine Bruton shares her inspiration for Bird Boy. This books reflects the theme of National Share A Story month brilliantly.

“Tell children stories and let them tell their stories. Through stories children can start to heal.”

My name is Catherine Bruton and when I’m not writing books for children, I’m also a teacher. The current generation of children in our classrooms are being dubbed ‘the anxious generation’, and it’s true that in the last decade there’s been a huge rise in mental health problems in children of all ages. But what I see first hand is the power of stories to help young people through the toughest of times. I see how stories can help them frame or express difficult experiences and make sense of them. Through stories, children begin to heal.

And so I came to this story – about a troubled boy who has been cut off from the world and finds it hard to readjust. A boy who is sent to the middle of nowhere to live with an uncle he didn’t even know existed. A story about a damaged boy who bonds with injured osprey chick and learns to take flight. A story about the healing power of nature.

I have always loved animal stories: Watership Down, Charlotte’s Web, A Kestrel for a Knave, One Hundred and One Dalmations, The Last Bear, When the Sky Falls, Brock, Sky Hawk ….glorious, beautiful books that made me laugh and cry and which left fossil prints on my heart. And did you know – research suggests that stories exploring the special child-creature bond can help young people develop empathy, make emotional connections, understand their own emotions, cope with difficult experiences and make sense of the world.

That was the magic I wanted to capture in Bird Boy – a story about leaving the nest and learning to take flight. But a story also about conservation, the importance of caring for the natural world, for protecting endangered species, and learning from nature, which is essential for our planet’s continuing health and for our own.

I first read Barry Hines’ A Kestrel for a Knave when I was twelve and cried buckets. I was angry at the ending – it felt so cruelly unfair and wrong. But there is a beauty in that devastating conclusion which has stayed with me and left an indelible mark on my soul. Because it is an ending which leaves you wanting to change the world – as all the best stories do.

Bird Boy has a more hopeful conclusion. But when they turn the last page, I hope readers might want to change the world too. Because it’s not only birds who migrate. This is also a story about migration. Displacement. Starting again. Losing your home and finding a new one.

Bird Boy was first inspired by a friend who works with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, using nature therapy to support traumatised children, including young refugees and asylum seekers. In my story, Will befriends Omar, who has fled from Afghanistan. Just like the osprey chick, both boys have been displaced and are struggling to adjust, both have scars that may never properly heal. And all three help each other to find a new kind of family.

It has been my privilege to teach refugee children from all over the world – children fleeing conflict in Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine… Children displaced from their homes, learning to start again, trying to make sense of the past and to build new futures. My book No Ballet

Shoes in Syria was written for those children and the millions like them across the world, and the letters and messages I have received from young refugees and asylum seekers who have read it reinforces my conviction that stories really do have the power to heal.

And so I hope that Bird Boy will also touch many hearts. I like to think it’s a combination of Good Night, Mr Tom and A Kestrel for a Knave (two of my favourite childhood stories) mixed with Gill Lewis’ Sky Hawk, which was my son’s favourite bedtime tale. Just like those wonderful tales, Bird Boy is a celebration of the healing power of nature, of friendship … and of stories.