Little Bird

Set in the fictional Texas town of Ellison, Little Bird is a story of family betrayal, secrets both heartbreaking and heartwarming, female friendship, and a young man who fails the bar exam on purpose so that he can practice teaching rather than law.

 

Just weeks before the start of a “normal” school year, sixty-year teaching veteran Gloria “Glo” Judd dies in her classroom at Ellison High School.  Her friend and colleague, Margaret, is forced to replace her with the best she can find: Attics Andrews, a recent law school graduate who flunked the bar exam on purpose so he could chase the teaching career his parents forbade him to pursue. When Attics moves into Glo’s old classroom, he discovers a first edition, autographed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird in her desk drawer. Tucked between the pages, Attics finds a list of commandments, written by Glo, of what she gleaned from fifty years of teaching the novel.

 

As Attics struggles through his first year of teaching, he relies on Glo’s posthumous commandments and Margaret’s help to navigate the rough waters of rookie teaching. As the year progresses, Margaret enlists Attics to help continue the good works of “Little Bird,” a secret fund Glo started when she saw student need interfering with student achievement. When a troubled student gets arrested, Attics and Margaret are forced to reconcile their own ideas and beliefs about who merits support.