I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I tried to read this and listen to it and each time my mind would wonder, meaning I could not connect with the book.

I have grown to really love a great memoir. My favorite is when they can blend the story of their life with the greater society. What a beautiful book.

"Birdgirl" would have benefited from illustrations throughout or an image guide and a co-author. The prose was uneven. The content was interesting enough, but the book was slow at times and jumped too far at others.

If Lab Girl and H is for Hawk were put together, you would get Birdgirl in the best way. Craig has accomplished so much at a young age and it is a thrill to experience her passion alongside her in the pages. A must for all bird enthusiasts, conservationists, and young readers who will surely find themselves motivated to discover their own unique passions and skill sets from Mya-Rose’s story.

DNF @8%

I do not enjoy the writing style of this book. It's very simplistic. That's not necessarily a bad thing on it's own, but the content is a very personal journey regarding birdwatching and her family. It makes it seem like I am reading a young girl's diary. It's not really keeping my attention.

I was intrigued by this book because I am a birdwatcher and not only did this book provide a lot about the joys and disappointments in seeking out birds for our life lists, it also is an incredibly moving and personal book about growing up with a mother with mental illness. To think that this was written by a 19 year old who has already experienced so much -both from traveling the world in search of birds with her dad and mom, but also in dealing with the struggles of growing up and discovering yourself in the midst of a chaotic family life. This book is beautifully structured - each chapter is a description of a bird and along the way we learn facts about bird nesting, migration, etc. At 8 years old she decided she wanted to see all the hummingbird species in the world (no small feat -- there are 374 species). Birding became a way to bond with her parents and find common language. Along the way, she also addresses the stigma of mental illness in her mom's culture and recognizes the impact of climate change on birds and becomes an outspoken advocate against the impact of climate devastation. And it's worth saying again -- she is only 19 years old! This book is based on a blog she started and I really look forward to seeing all of the great impact she will continue to have on her journey. I look forward to hearing more from Ms. Craig. I highly recommend this absolutely beautiful book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon Books for an ARC and I left my honest review voluntarily.

Birdgirl; Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future
by Mya-Rose Craig was such a beautiful book! I learned so much and have so much love for this incredibly powerful author! A must read!

This is the story of how observing birds changes your connection to the whole world. Mya-Rose Craig was born into a birding--or twitcher--family and quickly picked up her family's endless fascination with birds. They are not casual bird watchers, but curators of enormous life lists of birds spotted, the kind who travel around the world to collect species. The birds are described beautifully, and Craig successfully conveys how very early morning trips up mountains are worth it when she spots the bird she is hoping to see, but what makes this memoir stand out for me is what else Craig learned along her travels. This is a book about birds, but it's also a book about becoming an activist, about noticing inequalities, racism, habit depletion, and who gets to explore the natural world. Sometimes the shifts are a little abrupt, as she moves from her eight-year-old excitement at a six-months-long birding adventure in South America to defending the ethics of ecotourism, but Craig's passion carries it through. This book is inspirational.

This is not just a book about birds, it's also a book about family and how it changes us and shapes us.
This family knows a lot about birds and they're migrations. It brings them together, and teaches them about each other.
We learn a lot about Craig's family and how her mother being bipolar has affected her.
Craig has a beautiful voice, I enjoyed reading her work.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I truly enjoyed this book, mostly because I’m a birdgirl, too. I am impressed that the author has seen so much in her lif, not just birds, but also seeing her family with their tragedies and being able to write about it.

Shelf Awareness: Environmentalist and bird enthusiast Mya-Rose Craig chronicles her life as a bird watcher--and how it shaped her into a social justice activist by young adulthood--in her moving memoir, Birdgirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future. As the youngest daughter of a "well-known birding family" in Britain, Craig was exposed to birdwatching--also called "twitching" in the U.K.--from a young age. She recalls twitches with her parents: trips to the garden of a retired clergyman to spy a White-crowned Sparrow, weekend jaunts to see rooks and sparrowhawks, and more far-flung adventures to South America, Antarctica and eventually all seven continents seeking ever-rarer species of birds.

Craig calls birding a "thread running through the pattern of my life," and she follows that thread across every page. The result is a memoir about birds and Craig's milestones as an ornithologist: completing a "Big Year" (an attempt to see 300+ species of birds in one year) at age nine with her parents; starting Birdgirl, the blog from which her memoir gets its title, at age 11; and, ultimately, at 17, becoming the youngest person to have seen half of the known bird species in the world. But Birdgirl is also about so much more than birds, just one of the fascinating threads in the memoir. She also weaves into the larger tapestry of her life her experiences as a young British Bangladeshi birder in a community of predominantly white males; as the daughter of a mother with a severe mental illness; and as a young woman who came to realize that the habitats of her beloved birds are increasingly endangered by climate change and human interference. "Becoming a political and environmental activist felt like a natural progression," she writes, an observation that becomes abundantly clear as Birdgirl unfolds and Craig begins to use her platform and voice to emphasize climate change, stories of Indigenous peoples and the challenges of racial equity in nature and conservation circles.

Given how much Craig has accomplished in merely two decades, Birdgirl is bound to leave readers eager to see what she might put her mind to next. But even more so, this memoir will inspire readers with an eye for nature--as well as those interested in climate change and conservation--to look to the skies, as the subtitle suggests, and find inspiration for a better future in all of the majestic beauty that surrounds us. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Shelf Talker: A birder and environmental activist recalls her childhood spent birdwatching with her quirky family--and the many lessons it taught her about care for the natural world.

This is not just a book about bird watching. It is a travelogue, autobiography, conservation and climate change chronicoler, a mental health case file and so much more. Mya has not only a passion for birds but also for conservation. She is a voice we need in this world and look forward to seeing the continued work see does for the betterment of us all.