Kelli Anne Hawkins, Birdbrain, HarperCollins Publishers, September 2022, 288 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460759219
Homeschooled Hadley lives in a caravan park with her Dad. She has a passion for learning, budgies and books and seemingly endless tolerance for her Dad’s crazy money making schemes and tendency to listen to a bird for advice. One very normal day, a group of strange officials come knocking on the caravan door to tell Hadley she is a princess and her dad, a King of the small, relatively unknown European country, Ludrovia.
Hadley sets off for a new life in a new land where she eats a lot of cheese fondue, drinks exceptional hot chocolate, meets her first friends and spends her first days in a school classroom, even if it is in a castle. But all is not as it seems as Hadley quickly unveils a plot by the President to sell Ludrovia to a cheese loving American billionaire who has more than cheese on his mind.
With her newfound friends in tow, Hadley breaks into apartments, hacks computers and commandeers helicopters to save Ludrovia. She unknowingly puts her life at risk to prevent what she has come to love, falling into the hands of a maniacal capitalist.
What an unlikely journey, from an Australian caravan park to the European Alps! Anyone who has stayed at a caravan park will be familiar with the jammed doors and scratchy, sandy benches in the shower block that Hadley must contend with. These pitfalls of Australian holidaying make the contrast of the grassy European mountains and splendid castles evermore stark. Hadley, who has ‘lived a thousand lives through books’, is suddenly thrust into a surreal setting and young readers are invited along with her.
Hadley herself is intelligent, determined and confident, a strong protagonist for any young reader. The fact that she takes offence to being referred to by the condescending names often bestowed upon young girls, such as ‘darlin’, ‘princess’ or ‘precious young thing’, make this a stand out from the girl to princess transformation story. Her untiring drive to find evidence that supports her instincts about the man buying her country, her almost maternal feelings towards her father and her compassion for people she has just met drives her to grow and develop throughout the story.
Overall, Kelli Anne Hawkins has created a whimsical, upside down world where traditional idioms are turned on their head and goats dance ‘splendiferously’ at annual festivals. The conspiracy unfolding is a key feature of the plotline, but Hawkins has still made time for humour throughout. Young readers will giggle at the fascination with cheese and goats, Hadley’s father’s consistent dad jokes and the nonsensical idioms scattered throughout each chapter. And of course, there is the pun on the title, Birdbrain. There’s no doubt that Hadley’s father is enormously scatterbrained but, in true Ludrovian style, birdbrain refers to an important prophesy that tells of a person who communicates with birds and will save the Ludrovian people. Who wouldn’t want to be a Birdbrain?
I recommend this book to young readers 8 and over who enjoy quirky humour, mystery, and adventure.
Reviewed by Katie Mineeff