Owl in Love

Rating:
Summary: really really good
Review: An appropriate companion to Annette Curtis Klause's "Blood and Chocolate" is Kindle's tale about a teen wereowl, a clever and funny, yet surprisingly moral tale about acceptance of the other. As with Klause, Kindl avoids "generation gap" cliches, and focuses instead on the desire to prove one's maturity by literally leaving the nest. Without a sermon in sight, Kindle offers in this seemingly simple fairy tale a text flush with symbolism about the challenges of individual "diversity," and the responsibilities of the individual, in turn, to family and society.

Rating:
Summary: Going owling
Review: First of all, allow me to put your mind at rest. Despite the descriptions this book may carry, this is not some fantastical mythological version of "Lolita". Yes it involves a fourteen-year-old girl in love with her science teacher. But Kindl's twisty little plot is more interesting and appealing than it might first appear. If you can get through the first 27 odd pages, the book is actually well worth reading. A little slow at the beginning, and a little predictable in its plotting, but all in all a fine effort and an amusing little story.

We've all heard about werewolves and stuff like that. Now it's time to learn a little bit about some of the lesser known were-arcana. Take wereowls for example. You rarely run across them in literature. That makes Owl Tycho all the more interesting. Owl (not the most original name she could have received, but we'll overlook that for now) is fourteen years of age and in love in a savage desperate way. She is obsessed with her science teacher Mr. Lindstrom, a man she freely admits is middle aged and pudgy, with thinning hair. Changing into an owl nightly, she sits outside his window to watch him as he sleeps. Soon, however, she notices someone else who is also interested in the object of her affections. A young man, pale and starved, has taken to staring into the house and occasionally stealing supplies from it. Unraveling the mystery of this stranger stretches Owl to the limit, testing her fragile first friendship with a human girl and trapping her in her owl-like form. She may old for fourteen, but Owl has a lot to learn about how to act with people. Especially when they're a lot more similar to her than she may think.

I had enjoyed Patrice Kindl's fabulous and nightmarish, "The Woman In the Walls" a while ago so I had high hopes for "Owl In Love". Sadly, "Owl" disappointed me a little. The beginning of the tale is a little weak, with Owl speaking in an odd stilted manner. Eventually, it becomes clear that Kindl is writing Owl as she would an actual owl in the woods. Her personality should therefore be a little aloof and alien to us, and once that idea sinks it it's a little easier to get into. For a while though, it's rough going. Then you find that you like the heroine, for all that she's a bit rude to the people around her (social niceties weren't exactly taught in her home). About the time Owl's friend Dawn mentions that the teacher Mr. Lindstrom has a son... well you can probably figure out exactly what and when everything's going to happen in this book. It's predictable, but enjoyable. That sounds like backhanded praise, I admit, but I mean what I say. Plus Kindl has a fun humor-filled writing style that more than makes up for the occasional flaw. Owl, afraid of the bus she takes to Dawn's home, refers to it sourly as a, "mobile home of the damned". She also points out the embarrassment she once felt when an older owl made a pass at her one night. "He then began to dance in a most ridiculous and undignified way, shuffling about on the branch we shared, looking like a justice of the Supreme Court performing a striptease". Visual. Effective.

So "Owl In Love" isn't the best fantasy I've read, no. But it's a fun concept and an enjoyable tale. I have heard that students reading this book have been able to identify to the book's theme of "outsiders" and "parents who cannot help their own children" to their own lives. That's the point of good fantasy, and I like to think that since the book succeeds, it should remain in the canon of late 20th century young adult fiction. You may agree with some of the things I've said and you may disagree. Regardless of how you feel about the book, I still recommend "Owl In Love" to anyone who wants a book that's fun, not too long, and exciting. Few books manage to combine these three elements in a convincing way. "Owl In Love" does it with ease.


Rating:
Summary: Owl: Smart, Funny, and Wryly Self-Aware
Review: I found this story unique and highly enjoyable. 14-year-old Owl is passionately in love with her science teacher, stalking and spying at his windows all night -- easy for her to do, since she's a wereowl, able to shapeshift into animal form. Her voice is intelligent, humorous, wryly self-aware; her magical nature serves as an apt metaphor for teenage alienation. A fresh and occasionally transcendant novel, hampered only slightly by a perhaps over-tidy ending. Most impressive, I believe it's her first novel -- I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of Kindl's books!

Rating:
Summary: This book was great!!!
Review: I really thought this book was quite good...it includes all the great problems and joys of being a wereowl. However, one thing I must say about this book is that you begin to find the crush on her teacher a bit shallow once you are into the book. Also, I solved it before the ending, but I enjoyed reading it, because I found the characters, and their problems quite well written out. Memorable characters include her parents, who are weird wiccan(perhaps)/hippies who live in a shack at the edge of the forest. Also, I found the teacher an interesting character towards the end. I would reccomend this book to those new to lite fantasy, or were-books.

Rating:
Summary: Offbeat, delightful fantasy coming of age
Review: Owl in Love takes some familiar YA stories and makes them completely new! Like the best in children's fantasy, the magical elements are treated matter-of-factly and mundanely-- making them stand out in even greater relief.

Owl is a wereowl-- girl by day, owl by night. She perches on a tree outside of her science teacher's house and pines for him. Her witch parents are worried, because Owl isn't doing enough hunting. (what a great detail-- her parents are like any concerned parents anywhere, except their lives don't really belong to 20th century America). Kids sometimes tease Owl because they rarely see her eat (she's been known to bring mouse sandwiches to school, though).

Owl finally does make a friend, and this both enriches and complicates her life. The book wraps itself up delightfully-- Owl gets over her crush in a satisfying and original way (hint: the science teacher has a tragic secret involving a child...) and Owl learns she can trust her friend with her secret.

The book's originality and magic had me laughing and marvelling, but the story of a misfit-- a girl with talents that both make her interesting and set her apart-- is one that lots of kids can relate to. Heck, lots of adults. This book is full of charm and insight and is a terrific read.

Rating:
Summary: Offbeat, delightful fantasy coming of age
Review: Owl in Love takes some familiar YA stories and makes them completely new! Like the best in children's fantasy, the magical elements are treated matter-of-factly and mundanely-- making them stand out in even greater relief.

Owl is a wereowl-- girl by day, owl by night. She perches on a tree outside of her science teacher's house and pines for him. Her witch parents are worried, because Owl isn't doing enough hunting. (what a great detail-- her parents are like any concerned parents anywhere, except their lives don't really belong to 20th century America). Kids sometimes tease Owl because they rarely see her eat (she's been known to bring mouse sandwiches to school, though).

Owl finally does make a friend, and this both enriches and complicates her life. The book wraps itself up delightfully-- Owl gets over her crush in a satisfying and original way (hint: the science teacher has a tragic secret involving a child...) and Owl learns she can trust her friend with her secret.

The book's originality and magic had me laughing and marvelling, but the story of a misfit-- a girl with talents that both make her interesting and set her apart-- is one that lots of kids can relate to. Heck, lots of adults. This book is full of charm and insight and is a terrific read.

Rating:
Summary: A great book to read on a winter night with some hot cocoa.
Review: Owl Tycho, 14, is in love with her science teacher, Mr. Lindstrom. Nothing strange about that, right? Wrong. Owl IS an owl, or at least a wereowl. She perches every night outside of Mr. Lindstorm's window, and watches him sleep. But when a strange, violent boy appears in the woods just outside of her beloved one's house, and a stranger mad owl in the woods as well, Owl may be in danger...And Mr. Lindstorm! In this funny, heartwarming, romance/mystery, you'll learn about Owl's strange ways, and how-or IF-she saves herself and her one-way lover. Charming, mystical, a wonderfully good read

Rating:
Summary: True Romance--From that Weird Kid in School
Review: You've seen them around. Those weird kids, as a lot of people would call them. The ones who don't act "normal", don't dress "normal", or is "just plain freaky" because they aren't something you are. My friend Bobby would call them freaks of nature, but let's not get into that.

Well, what if that weird kid was more than meets the eye? Sure, Owl, at 14, eats real (albeit dead) rats in her sandwiches, but who would have thought that she lived up to her namesake as a were-owl? And we thought her parents were just down-and-out hippies. Well, they are, sort of. Anyways, her eating rats in public don't go over too well with that elite popular crowd, but she doesn't care because she found her mate: her science teacher. Every night, she stalks-er, watches- her-harumph!-love from a tree. In her owl form, of course, or else she'd look like an idiot perched on that thingy. But all that changes when the new owl in town flies over the cuckoo's nest...

A really good story for the kid who always didn't feel "normal" or "didn't fit in". Try being the kid who REALLY didn't fit in or ISN'T normal.