Book reviewed by Chris J Kenworthy, for Armadillo magazine.
‘Twitch’ is a story about trust, friendship and birdwatching. It follows a young boy called Twitch, who is a keen birdwatcher and often visits the nearby nature reserve of Aves Wood.
Twitch gets bullied by Jack – a pupil at school – in the last week before the summer holidays, and is rescued by a stranger called Billy, with whom Twitch forms a friendship.
When he was seven, Twitch’s grandad built him his own human-sized bird box in his bedroom. Twitch had then decorated the interior to make it more homely. “It was his nest and he felt safe inside.”
It is a heartwarming backstory, but since his own bed is shaped like a bird box, it brings attention to Twitch’s biggest fault. Although “Ornithologists make good detectives,” people’s habits and intentions can’t be observed as easily as watching them through a pair of binoculars, and the other characters are quick to remind him that people are not birds.
Twitch starts an unlikely friendship with Jack, but he soon begins to learn for himself about the complexities of human behaviour. Billy tries to convince Twitch that he can’t be friends with Jack, his former bully, and explains: “A leopard doesn’t change his spots […] You might know a lot about birds, kiddo, but you don’t seem to know a lot about people.”
‘Twitch’ is a coming of age story for its main protagonist, and a life lesson in human behaviour – set against the backdrop of birdwatching in a nature reserve.
There is a subplot that a robber is on the loose, and this makes the story exciting to read, and has an important role in the later stages of the novel. The lessons for its readers are about the difficulties of knowing who to trust.
It is a fun story to read, and would make a great book for a class to study in school, as it teaches its readers all about trust, friendship, making secret dens and exploring the countryside with friends and family.
Stowmarket Reporter 