Catherine, Called Birdy

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Summary: You ask too many questions. That's Bad Manners.
Review: This book is good. It's funny, and depicts what life was like in the Medivel Ages. You still need to know a little bit to start you off, and a dictionary to understand some of the old words, but other than that this book should be highly recommended

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Summary: This was a great book!
Review: I read this book within one day, and I liked it a lot. In fact, I loved it. Catherine is a country knight's daughter, whose father is determined to "sell her off like a cheese to some Lack Wit Suitor". She does plenty of antics to get rid of her suitors. Setting fire to a privy is just one of them. She is almost crushed when her best friend, Aelis, falls in love with her uncle, George. She is worried that she has spoiled their love, when she puts a curse on the love. Catherine is a born Female Rights Activist. She is my dream of a damsel, who is not in distress, but giving it to someone. I would like to change this book just a bit. I hate the fact that she found her brother and the launderess "snuggled up together in the hay",a nd that fact that she wants to "piss in the fire to make it hiss" just like a boy. These gruesome details were just too much, but Catherine lives it all. She finally ends up realizing that her life isn't just about "lady lessons", but about a lot more. I would reccommend it to girls from the age of ten to fourteen.

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Summary: this was my 6th grade book report and i got a A+ !
Review: Catherine Called Birdy

Catherine Called Birdy is not about your average damsel in distress and is willing to do anything so that she does not have to marry against her will. Catherine¡¯s father is a greedy toad that is willing to sacrifice anything, even his daughters happiness to have a rich man married into his family, but not if Catherine has anything to do with it. Now Catherine was not like most young ladies in the Middle Ages but was a clever, mischievous tomboy. What she thinks made a fine young lady was someone dumb, docile and accomplished. So far this cunning girl managed to rid her self of many suitors, but when the ugliest, most revolting man comes, he just happens to be the richest. This determined girl¡¯s tricks did not work on this man and her father made sure that Catherine didn¡¯t do anything to hurt her chances. Was Catherine going to have to marry this man or was she going to able to pull herself out of this marriage?
Recommendation

I would recommend everybody reading this because it takes place in Medieval England and shows the point of view from a lady in these times. Women probably all felt at one point or another like Catherine and that would be feeling trapped. Even if this book does not inform you much about the Middle Ages it is very interesting and funny. This book comes in diary form and is very informative that way.

Rating:
Summary: boring with absolutely no plot
Review: When I first started this book, I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. After a while, though, I got sick of Catherine's stupidity and immaturity and found that there was just no plot at all. I got so bored of the book I stopped in the middle, which I almost NEVER do. Normally I continue to the end of all books I read, no matter how badly written, because I just want to know what happens at the end. Not with this book! There was absolutely no suspense because there was absolutely no plot. Later, a friend of mine, as we discussed the stupidity of the book, told me what happens at the end of the nonexistant plot the back of the book suggests, and though I won't give it away here, it's as stupid as the rest of the book. I can't really say it was badly written, it was just a bad, boring book.

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Summary: Let's hear it for Catherine!
Review: From the first time I read this book in 6th grade,I loved it. Two years later,I bought it and "The Midwife's Apprentice" at a school book fair and enjoyed it all over again. The ways she got rid of potential suitors were ingenious and amusing! Imagine having to be married at 14 to someone you hate! Some parts were gross,but what do you expect in 13th century England? Birdy managed to cope with it and the dreadfulness of being a woman of the Dark Ages. Her feminism was ahead of its time. She escaped her troubles by writing and pondering,like many teenage girls do today with theirs. I had to remind myself that this wasn't a real diary from 1290-91! It's one of my absolute favorites! A note to other readers: buy it,buy it! Wish there was a sequel (are you reading this,Mrs. Cushman?)

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Summary: The Princess who Married the Frog
Review: "It is Shaggy Beard himself who whishes to take me for wife! What a monstrous joke. That dog assassin whose breath smells like the mouth of hell, who makes wind like others make music, who attacks helpless animals with knives, who is ugly and old!" (122). I have just recently read a book by Karen Cushman, called Catherine, Called Birdy. Catherine is a 14 year old living in 1290, and is daughter of the lord of the Manor. However, her life is not an eloquent poem of respecting her parents, churning butter, and smiling at her simple dramas in life. Instead, Catherine spends her days defying her "toad" father, fleeing her chores and sewing, and most importantly working to make herself the most unattractive girl to any slime ball suitor who comes along. However, the most disgusting of all, Shaggy Beard, might just get his way. Can this clever gal escape the hog, or will her greedy father sell her off to the North to wed the dreaded Shaggy Beard?
Catherine's Diary is both funny and enthralling. I definitely recommend this story because it made the past something I could relate to while providing humor. I really began to care about her and her plights against the unworthy suitors. However I think the story's best quality was Catherine's straightforward narrating. My only complaint is that the chapters right before the end lost my interest. All in all it is light fun reading. Read this book to find out her fate, and then read the others in the series.

Rating:
Summary: One word: BRILLIANT!
Review: Without exception, I'm a very picky reader, and also a tough reviewer. As a writer myself, I spend much of my time reviewing and editing my own writing, looking for flaws and inconsistencies and cursing my mistakes when I find them. Consequently, when I read other people's writing, I am also similarly critical, and can't help looking for faults. Sadly, almost without exception, I find them in most books. However, this is one book that I really couldn't fault. I tried, but I just couldn't. My picky nature had to admit defeat: this writer is really, REALLY good! Her maturity, comprehension and attention to detail are truly masterful, and I wish I possessed half her skill as a writer!

This book is amazing in its realism. I could actually believe that it really was a diary written in 1290 by a teenage girl. The author, Karen Cushman, knows her history well, but she presents it in such a bright, witty, matter-of-fact way that this is less of a history lesson and more of a day by day revelation.

The main character in the book, Catherine, is a wonderful, endearing girl whom I couldn't help but like. She is bright, intuitive and intelligent, and she's not afraid to ask the tough questions about life. Rather than simply accepting her fate and the society she lives in, she tries to improve her world. She is kind and fair to the people and animals she meets, which makes her an anomaly in her time but a winsome, admirable heroine in ours.

I must say, though, the best thing about this book is that most of the time it's absolutely side-splittingly hilarious! Catherine lives a difficult life in harsh times, but she does so with an unerring sense of humour and a real love of life. And if that isn't a great moral for young people today then I don't know what is!

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Summary: AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Review: I read this book for the first time when I was in second or third grade. And then I read it again, and again. Today, my copy's spine is peeling and the pages are dog-eared. It was my favorite book for years and years. I don't plan to have any kids, but incase I have an accident or two, I'll probably keep this book forever: it's a perfect children's book. Catherine Called Birdy is funny, educational, realistic, and even heart-warming. But not too much. I'd reccomend it to absolutely anyone.

Rating:
Summary: boring with absolutely no plot
Review: When I first started this book, I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. After a while, though, I got sick of Catherine's stupidity and immaturity and found that there was just no plot at all. I got so bored of the book I stopped in the middle, which I almost NEVER do. Normally I continue to the end of all books I read, no matter how badly written, because I just want to know what happens at the end. Not with this book! There was absolutely no suspense because there was absolutely no plot. Later, a friend of mine, as we discussed the stupidity of the book, told me what happens at the end of the nonexistant plot the back of the book suggests, and though I won't give it away here, it's as stupid as the rest of the book. I can't really say it was badly written, it was just a bad, boring book.

Rating:
Summary: I was hoping for more
Review: This book caught my eye as I was passing the children's section of the bookstore. From the summary and subject it sounded like my kind of thing. I read it all, and while it wasn't awful, I had hoped for something more; I was kind of expecting a humorous story about a girl trying to scare off all her suitors, but was mostly treated to a rather bland "diary" of the day to day life of a Medieval girl, which is okay, but not really what I was after. And truth be told, I caught many errors in the research, though mostly they would be called "nitpicks." (For example, the author seems to have no idea how men's clothing would have been constructed at the time.) I suppose it's fine for preteens who are kind of interested in the Middle Ages.
Everyone else, I would recommend that instead of this, you buy Wodehouse's "The Inimitable Jeeves" along with the Gies's "Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages." You will be much happier with the effect you get from reading those than anything provided here.