An interview with Catherine Bruton
Catherine Bruton is on the shortlist for this year’s Nero Children’s Book Award with her moving but reassuring story Bird Boy. Joy Court interviewed Catherine about the book for Books for Keeps.
For Catherine Bruton, receiving the news that her latest book, Bird Boy has found itself as one of the books on the children’s books shortlist for the Nero Book Awards, was ‘humbling’. She feels both ‘lucky’ and ‘totally thrilled’, but nevertheless what really matters to her, as an author, is ‘knowing that your books made a difference’. As a teacher, still working three and a half days a week, this is something she sees ‘on a daily basis’. It is a privilege to be sharing books with young people and really inspiring to see the ways in which books impact them: ‘A constant reminder of what you do it for.’ She loves the balance she has achieved between writing and teaching, and it is obvious that what she observes happening in children’s lives today is a driving force in her writing and what gives her characters their unmistakeable authenticity. (Although she is adamant that none are based on any one individual!)
Bird Boy is the moving story of Will, who has recently suffered the loss of his single parent Mum in a tragic accident for which he blames himself. He is transported from his homeschooled life in a tower block, where he had been trapped by his mother’s failing mental health, to a remote cottage in the Lake District to live with an uncle he’s never met. Yet his Mum grew up there and her deep love of nature and birds was passed down to him and so he has some solace in this new location. He makes a new friend, Omar, a refugee from Afghanistan, who is battling his own trauma, and they bond over their passion for birds. They make the thrilling discovery of an osprey nest and when one of the baby birds is thrown from her nest during a storm, the boys determine to keep her alive at all costs.
The subtle, but important, parallels between the lives of Will, Omar and the baby osprey, who are each learning to trust and survive, and between osprey migration, Will’s upcoming migration journey to paternal grandparents in Australia and Omar’s precarious immigration status in Britain, are very satisfying to Catherine and we talk about the various inspirations that sparked her imagination. Becoming obsessed in lockdown with a live web cam of ospreys nesting in Wales and thinking about their extraordinary journey to get there is one. Her subsequent research visits and discussion with experts converted her into a ‘bird nerd’ who is determined to ‘save’ her osprey and to celebrate the powerful, life enhancing bond that can grow between animals and children. There is also an important spiritual symbolism attached to these beautiful birds: ‘We all come back as birds’ as Will’s Mum says to him. Her editor is always ‘encouraging me to dig deeper’ she says, and she brought her own experience of losing her father to the sensitive, nuanced portrayal of the way in which Will experiences grief and ‘how the chick is inextricably linked to thoughts of his mother, as if saving Whitetip will somehow atone for his mother’s death.’
The other inspiration was reflecting on the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the news coming in from Afghanistan and later from Ukraine and the waves of refugees which followed. It concerns her deeply that refugees are portrayed as a problem in the media and, as with her debut novel, Ballet Shoes in Syria, this was a negative stereotype she wanted to challenge, ‘To get young people thinking differently and to create a better world’. She describes how exciting it is to see the young people in class admit that they had never seen it that way or that this was the first time they had ever had to think about such an issue.
But crucially, it was what she and other teachers increasingly saw as a mental health crisis in children, especially post lockdown, that inspired her to write this novel. She firmly believes that stories can make a difference and describes a Trauma Informed Schools training she found particularly valuable, which articulated the notion that children need stories which help them to tell their own stories, giving them the framework, vocabulary and tools to express their own experiences and begin the healing process. We see Will and Omar gradually doing this Bird Boy, revealing their stories to each other and recognising each other’s vulnerabilities and coping strategies.
The healing power of nature is emphasised too and here she was inspired by the nature therapy work of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. The vividly evoked Lake District setting is a vital part of the story: ‘almost feels like a character’ says Catherine, and it was on a visit to a remote bolthole there, that the first two chapters were written and the ‘big picture’ of the story emerged.
‘Kes with more hope’ sums up her ambition for the book and she also wanted ‘a more positive depiction of teachers and education as a more supportive space’ than Barry Hines allowed. Teachers are often an easy target and yet in her experience ‘they really love and care for their students.’ But, as in Kes, she wanted to show the impact on empathy and well-being from the human/animal interaction.
With a target audience of 8-12s, it’s all the more important for her to have an ending which offers hope. Although not entirely agreeing with Edith Wharton who said that readers wanted ‘tragedy with a happy ending,’ she admires Wharton’s nuanced endings, her writing another inspiration on her own work. You can ‘confront young people with complex themes, but you can’t offer glib solutions or underestimate young readers, who are much more sophisticated and mature than adults realise’ she says, ‘They know the darkness is out there and there is a need for them to explore that, it is part of growing up.’ The key is to offer hope. ‘Hope is empowering and helps young people understand they can be part of the solution.’
This is a book which unflinchingly confronts some difficult subjects, but in a way which is ultimately deeply reassuring. It gives readers a strong message about the resilience of the human spirit and about the healing power of nature, friendship, found family and belonging. It will leave a lasting impression upon any reader- from 8 to 80.
Joy Court is a trustee of The United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA), co-founder of All Around Reading and Conference Manager for CILIP Youth Libraries Group. She is a Past Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.
Bird Boy is published by Nosy Crow, 978 1 83994 649 3, £7.99 pbk.
