Catherine, Called Birdy

The Bibliography
Cushman, Karen. 1994. Catherine, Called Birdy. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 0395681862

The Characters
The main character of Catherine, Called Birdy, is fourteen-year-old Catherine, daughter of Rollo the Knight and lady Aislinn. Other characters are Catherine's brothers, Thomas, Edward and Robert, her friend and local goatherd Perkin, her nursemaid Morwenna, various other friends and townsfolk, and many suitors that come trying to buy Catherine's hand in marriage.

The Plot
Catherine's brother Edward tells her to write a diary, recording the events that happen to her each day in hopes that she will grow less childish and more learned. Throughout the year of writing, starting in September 1290 and ending in September 1291, Catherine tells of her life, the several men that come seeking her hand in marriage, hiding from them and figuring out ways to live her own life.

The Setting
1290-1291, the village of Stonebridge in the shire of Lincoln in the country of England

The Theme
The theme of Catherine, Called Birdy, is a coming of age theme in medieval times. The time comes for Catherine to learn to be a woman, to do her sewing and spinning and embroidering, and to be married off to the highest bidder, whether she wants to or not.

The Style
Catherine, Called Birdy, is an epistolary novel, written as a diary in the words of Catherine, showing the way of speaking and mannerisms of the time. Mayhap I should begin to speak like Catherine. Corpus bones!

The Analysis
I enjoyed reading this book and thought Catherine was pretty funny. She went to such depths to avoid being sold off by her father to the wealthiest suitor, blackening her teeth and her hair and setting the privy on fire. She was a good friend to goatboy Perkin and had crushes on a boy who worked under her father and on her uncle... eesh. She didn't want to get married, but would rather have painted or been a Crusader. She loved her mother and her nursemaid and her birds. The only problem I really had with the book is that I wanted her to be able to choose her own husband, and I hoped it would have been Perkin! At least she didn't have to marry the big, gross Shaggy Beard, though, and became betrothed to his son, who seemed to care for her.

The Review
Charles R. Duke (The ALAN Review, Winter 1995 (Vol. 22, No. 2))
Catherine, known as Birdy because of her love for various kinds of birds, is a headstrong fourteen-year old living in medieval England. Her brother Edward suggests she keep a diary so she will become more learned and less childish. Catherine's year-long record of her daily activities gives readers a detailed account of life in the late 1200s. Catherine's father wants her to marry, but she fights all the way, setting fire to the privy while one of her suitors is inside, disguising herself as a very ugly serving girl, and finally running away. This is not a fast-moving or highly plotted story, but it is rich with details of life in a medieval home of limited means. For history buffs, the story should prove interesting. Girls will be far more attracted to it than boys and will undoubtedly identify with the struggle women had in defining their role in a world dominated by men.

The Connection
A fun activity for older elementary kids would be to share this story, then have them read other epistolary novels like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney or The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, then have them chronicle a period of their own lives in a diary.