"Avocet Abigail "Bird" Jackson and her elder sister, Phoebe, have had it tough. When her father kills himself, her mother takes the two girls to move to a little motel in Floria so she can work as a bookkeeper and they can attend school while living in a small, dumpy little trailer. There, Bird makes friends with Miss Zora, a wise old black healer who helps Bird in her own struggle with Mama, a drunken, abusive woman still grieving over the loss of her husband. "
Megan, Resident Scholar
"This story is about a nine-year old girl named Avocet Abigail Jackson, or Bird. Bird is a small town girl growing up in rural Florida in the 1960's as the impoverished daughter of alcoholic and physically abusive parents. Raised in the midst of chaos and turmoil, Bird is wise beyond her years. After falling to abuse by her alcoholic parents and the destructive upheaval of moving from one trashy house to the next, her one solace is Jesus, whom she fantasizes as her boyfriend. While battling the hard times of her father committing suicide and the voices in her head and her mother blaming her, Birds discovers Miss Zora, a mysterious black woman who lives alone in a cottage near Bird's school and comes to teach the little girl about dignity and her own capacity for forgiveness. "
Susan Tanaka, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of Before Women Had Wings
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- depressed
Time/era of story
- 1960's-1970's
Kids growing up/acting up?
Yes
Kids:
- religious influences
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Age group of kid(s) in story:
- grade school
Parents/lack of parents problem?
- parental abuse
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- student
Age:
- a kid
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
- quite fatty
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- unemployed
- homemaker
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb:
Yes
Eccentric:
- emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Dumb
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 8 (a significant amount)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Southeast
- Deep South
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- dumb Rednecks, like Gomer Pyle
Misc setting
- resort/hotel
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Lot of foul language?
Yes
Unusual Style:
- a lot of play on words
- a lot of stream of consciousness
- written like a journal/diary/letters
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
