100 books like Bird Brain

This book is a funny and heartbreaking road trip story about the strength of family.

Though a cross-country trip in an RV is a nightmare for the main character, Charlie, who thrives on consistency, I didn’t want my journey with this cast of characters to end. Charlie is a loveable kid with a strong voice, and the portrayal of his OCD came through as authentic. Charlie clings to his list of bird sightings as a sign of hope that everything will turn out okay, and the anticipation of seeing him check off his sightings kept me turning the pages!

This is one of those books with a setting so strong it becomes a character—in this case, a run-down old castle in Scotland.

There’s so much more to love here, though, like lost and found friendships, an old diary that adds a historical thread, and, of course, birds. I felt a connection to the main character, Callie, who just wants to stay home and read books!

If I were forced to choose an extracurricular activity, I’d also skip the sports and pick something animal-related, like the birding club. My admiration for Callie grew when she spoke up, even when she was intimidated.

This book has so many of my favorite things—laughter and tears on the same page, a character with a strong connection to an animal, and a funny, caring, resilient kid who’s wrestling with a difficult decision.

I enjoy seeing characters who cause their own problems, like Coop does when he derails his basketball plans by climbing a tree to check out a bird's nest! I also love it when antagonists aren’t villains; Coop and his family might be at odds about what he should do with his mockingbird, but they’re loving parents and grandparents.

I cheered for Coop to discover where he fits in, and he's a character I’ll remember long after closing the book. 

This book helped me relive one of the bright spots of the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, when author Stephanie Lucianovic chronicled her son’s Zoom classroom spiraling into chaos when the teacher was disconnected from the class.

That fun and messy narrative unfolded in a Twitter thread known as #ZoomOfTheFlies. Imagine my delight when I saw that real-life event woven into Lucianovic’s novel. 

In this engaging novel in verse, I identified with Archie as he navigated through the upheaval of the pandemic lockdowns and struggled to make his voice heard over so much noise. I felt like I was in the company of a trustworthy friend who finds hope and connection amid isolation and uncertainty. 

Game-obsessed kids will love Josh Baxter. While the story is realistic, his whole worldview is informed by gaming and pop culture. Josh is trying to fit in at a new school and he treats it like a video game. Each chapter ends with a video game-inspired graphic showing his level, health, and new skills unlocked. There is barely a page where he doesn’t reference a character from The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, Final Fantasy, Minecraft, Pokémon, Marvel, or some other game. You can just tell the author loves video games as much as Josh does.

Daisy Johnson is a force of her own. I’ve read all three of her books and was the most taken with her more recent novel, Sisters. This has a moody, gothic feel to it. Very well narrated by one of the two sisters, and is the ultimate story about disappearance, and the traumatic effect it can have on a loved one. Brutal, surreal, and with a setting as real as its characters: a crumbling moldy cottage, near the shore, that lives and breathes with the characters. And includes a twist you won’t see coming.

My favorite thing about this book is the way Liberty creates her own constellations, called star maps, out of the sky. She finds stories and meaning in them and charts them herself.

This love for space is something she shares with her dad, who is deeply depressed, and who has recently moved out. When she witnesses a meteorite fall to earth, she lugs it back to her room and begins to talk to it. Is it really a meteorite? Does it talk back? Is Liberty depressed too? The uncertainty deftly reflects the confusion Liberty feels about her parents’ divorce. 

Full disclosure, I narrated this one (which is how I was introduced to it), and I had to pause my recording lots of times to get through it without crying. 

As a workplace bullying researcher, my bookshelves are filled with hundreds of books specifically and adjacent to the topics of workplace abuse, toxic environments, creative cultures, and destructive leadership.

Of all the books I have read on the topic, Duffy’s and Sperry’s is the best. Coming from both a research and clinical perspective, they clearly lay out the causes, significance, and often tragic fallout of workplace abuse.

In addition, they bring the concept of mobbing, a term more often used in Europe, to the United States, detailing the trauma that ensues when a group of people joins forces, exhibiting the predatory behavior of pack animals, with the shared mission to denigrate the target’s reputation and drive her out of a job.

Most importantly, after offering the reader a rich education on toxic group dynamics, they give specific strategies survivors can use to heal and eventually thrive in the workplace. 

Sugar and Spite has magic, strong friendships, and imperfect, yet relatable characters—all the things I enjoy in a novel. Not only did I enjoy learning about the many facets of the Filipino culture; I appreciated the layered messaging. Bullying is a difficult topic to tackle, and this novel addresses it in a way that caused me to think about the challenging people and difficult relationships in my life. This is such a sweet story dealing with issues I know readers can identify with—loss, jealousy, insecurities, and ultimately acceptance.

The author is a mom and clinician herself and based on clinical best practices has written a lovely rhyming book to help young children deal with boundaries and bullies in a way that is accessible for younger readers. Ideal for school, daycare, and clinical settings. As a parent of an empathic child, I found this book an easy way to introduce the concepts of self-worth and appropriate relationships. If you have a child that is experiencing bullying or needs to set boundaries at school, then this book is an excellent addition to your library.