Books to Borrow Williamsburg Public Library Recommends

We meet Claire in book one of the series, “Odd Bird.” Eleven-year-old Claire Belle lives in a dense forest in North-central Pennsylvania and she loves birds. Not only that; they love her. In fact, they appear to find her irresistible. Hawks and hummingbirds, robins and wrens; they seem to flock to her and what’s even more interesting is that wearing a shirt with a bird’s image seems to guarantee a sighting of that bird. Is she really summoning them? Can she do it without wearing their images? What is this strange relationship she has with the birds and what does it mean for her future?

Claire searches for answers with the help of her friends. Victor, her friend from school, rides the school bus with her. Jerry, a peculiar person with a pet chicken, was known to the two only as the old man who roams the forest. One day while wandering through the woods with her sheepdog, Sammy, Claire encountered the local red-tailed hawk known as Big Red. She also encountered the strange old man (and his pet chicken). Jerry told her amazing stories about the female hawk. Like herself, Jerry is an odd character with an affinity for birds.

“Odd Bird” and “The Hawk’s Message” were originally published under the titles “The Legend Awakes” and “The Ivory-billed Obsession.” Butler reimagined the first stories while researching and writing the third in the trilogy, “The Shining Swan.”

In “The Hawk’s Message,” Claire learns how to enter the Now. Continuing her journey as champion of birds, she will do whatever it takes to save them. In the Now, she can speak to the birds, and the red-tailed hawk can deliver a pressing message. In this chapter of her trek, she travels to Arkansas on a quest to find the ivory-billed woodpecker.

For the third and final chapter to the trilogy, Butler reaches into the legends of the past, intensifying Claire’s story and her journey. Claire’s great-grandmother owns a castle in Ireland. There, a pair of Irish Curlews nest and developers put these endangered birds at risk. With the help of old and new friends, her powers, and the aid of the birds, Claire will give everything she has to protect the habitat, and maybe save the castle while she’s at it.

Pennsylvania-based children’s author, P.K. Butler enjoys bird-watching, star-gazing, pollinator gardening, and reading. Butler, who lives in Gettysburg, finished the “Of the Wing” series after traveling to Ireland just like Claire in the series finale.