Tags
baby birds, cottage, encouragement, fly, introduction, summer, young adult, Young-adult fiction, Youth
I woke up this morning and went to the bathroom to look at the birds in the nest outside. I noticed that they were struggling, and I called my grandmother over. “Granny, why are they acting funny?” I asked. “She’s kicking them out of the nest, She’s trying to teach them how to fly.” Anyway, they’ve been struggling the past few hours: They don’t want to get out. They have had a lot of false starts, don’t get me wrong: they are trying out their wings, but Huey, Dewey, and Louie haven’t left the comfort of their home yet.
Anyway, I’ve been watching them from my bathroom (I have to climb up on the ledge to see out the window… I really wish I was taller.) and Maisie’s been coming in and out- and Huey, Dewey and Louie have been squawking.
I couldn’t help connecting this to young adulthood and adolescence. Parents are an important part of this stage- like Maisie, they need to support the young, but also try to make them more independent. They may rebel- there is always rebellion in young adult books- tearing themselves away from the parents or doing something that goes against what they’ve been taught; but ultimately they mature and the main thing about this- young adult novels and the birds nest outside; they need to learn to do things on their own and figure things out for themselves. They gotta learn how to fly sometime, but they will fly when they’re ready.
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WORKS CITED
IMAGES:
- Both are mine.
Because this is an introduction to a series of posts- and I often start my introductions just musing, there are no other sources.