Nora Martin

Flight of the Fisherbird, by Nora Martin generated an engaging discussion among six adult book club members. Set in the 1899 San Juan Islands, the middle-grade to young adult novel intertwined local history with multiculturalism, poetry, natural history, adventure and suspense. Clementine is a resourceful, strong-willed protagonist who discovers that her beloved Uncle Doran is not the noble man she had believed.

Supporting characters Tong-Ling, Jed, and Sarah are equally well-drawn and complement Clem's spirit. Tong-Ling's Chinese heritage and plight open the younger people's eyes to a larger world. As one member elucidated, Tong-Ling contributes to the theme of being afloat at sea both literally and figuratively. He is also pivotal in helping Clem realize her “scribbled lists” are poetry. Jed provides steadiness and humor to the story as well as a kind, open heart. And he is from Lopez Island! Sarah provides Clem with the opportunity to see through another's eyes.

Members noted that the last lines of Clem's list poems were the punch lines, as in:

Things I Like About Jed
Likes everyone unless forced not to
Sees people's hearts, not what they look like
Speaks his own “Jed” language
Makes me laugh
Can spit

We noted that the youth in the story were more open-minded and had stronger sense of right and wrong than the adults. Children and teens feel strongly about fairness. Some concern was raised for younger readers at Doran's inappropriate behavior with Sarah. Another reader commented that it addressed a dark stain on local history in a way which wouldn't cause a young reader to feel alienated.

Clem obviously loved her island home and the author emphasized this with lovingly written imagery and precise references to local flora and fauna. She had a thirst for knowledge that reminded some readers of themselves. She wrote her lists on scraps of paper and madrone bark.

What I Want to Know
All the birds and all the plants
What makes one seed grow into a tree and another into a flower
How crabs breathe
Why water changes color
The wind's language

We concluded with a reading of Mary Oliver's poem “The Kingfisher” as a tribute to Clem's boat, the "Fisherbird," and the poem's mirroring of the story's themes of nature and spirit.

The kingfisher rises out of the black wave
like a blue flower, in his beak
he carries a silver leaf. I think this is
the prettiest world - so long as you don’t mind
a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life
that doesn’t have its splash of happiness?
There are more fish than there are leaves
on a thousand trees, and anyway the kingfisher
wasn’t born to think about it, or anything else.
When the wave snaps shut over his blue head, the water
remains water - hunger is the only story
he has ever heard in his life that he could believe.
I don’t say he’s right. Neither
do I say he’s wrong. Religiously he swallows the silver leaf
with its broken red river, and with a rough and easy cry
I couldn’t rouse out of my thoughtful body
if my life depended on it, he swings back
over the bright sea to do the same thing, to do it
(as I long to do something, anything) perfectly.… (más)