Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel by Oyeyemi Helen

Author:Oyeyemi, Helen [Oyeyemi, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

a. It’s an optical illusion or a symptom of eye disease. (Eye disease doubtful: The optician has my vision down as 20/15 in both eyes and says that if I keep eating my greens and don’t try to read by flashlight I can be an airplane pilot if I want, fly for real like every Bird should.)

b. I’m not human. (Pretty sure that I’m physically and emotionally similar to all the other kids I know. There’s maybe even just a little more emotion than there’s supposed to be, like on school mornings when Louis jumps into the seat I’ve been saving for him and I get a little dizzy because he’s so close and I want to tell him I missed him even though it’s been less than sixteen hours since we last said good-bye, even though he just burped me “Good morning” in a grossly immature way. One day I couldn’t bite back the “I missed you,” and he nudged me with his elbow and said: “Uh . . . I guess I missed you too, weirdo.” As for vampirism, a love of sunny days and garlic bread makes that very improbable.)

c. The enemy thing. Someone wishing and willing me out of sight. (Me: That’s kind of an exciting thought, being that big of a deal to someone. Gee-Ma Agnes: Sometimes I think you’re almost grown up, then all of a sudden it looks like you’ve got a long way to go. I’d love to get her back for that one day, just clap a hand to my forehead and say: “Oh! Sometimes I think you’re a member of the teenaged set, then it hits me that you’re ancient.” Of course that’s only a fantasy—Gee-Ma knows exactly when to get tears in her eyes and make you feel like a criminal. I asked her to teach me how to do it once and she welled up right there and then said: “I don’t understand what you’re asking me, child.”)

d. “Enchantments be not always ill.” (An unknown friend with good intentions?)

e. This is something that happens to everybody but they deny it.

f. I’m a nut job. (No comment.)

Maybe I need to try to look at this from the outside, get some facts down.

What is known about this Bird Whitman?

She’s thirteen years old, and still looking for a way to put an extra two years on somehow, so she can catch up to Louis Chen. He says it can’t be done and he’ll always be older, but given the way mirrors have been behaving lately, anything’s possible.

She tells everyone her middle name is Novak. All her friends have middle names and she’ll be damned if she has to go without one.

Her dad prefers the waffles she makes to the ones her mom makes. The secret is buttermilk.

She’s five feet and four inches tall, already quite a lot taller than her girlfriends, and she hasn’t finished growing yet; where will it end? Gee-Ma Agnes says Bird is getting to be “as tall

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