Blue Heron

3.25 stars

(Almost) 13-year old Maggie’s parents are divorced and live across the country from each other. In the summer, right around her birthday, Maggie heads from Seattle, where she lives with her mom, for a holiday with her dad – this year at a lake near Boston. When she arrives, she learns a few things about her dad from her stepmom, Joanna – things that worry them both. Maggie also has a new baby stepsister, and she becomes fascinated with a great blue heron that she sees on the lake most mornings.

This is a good children’s book. I wasn’t thrilled with some of the “crap” Joanna piled onto Maggie. Joanna was nice and was dealing with her own issues, but I was not impressed that she dragged Maggie into some of those show more things, at only 13 years old. The nature descriptions were very nice. show less

Blue Heron by Avi
Have read other author's works and have enjoyed them all. This one is about Maggie and they are spending time at the shore and she has a new sister.
Magic and her father, she believes in all. Her mother gave her a crystal that is pure magic in her pocket. She travels to visit her father and step mother from Seattle all the way to MA. The shore will have much magic.
Very familiar to the area as we live nearby. It's interesting how the descriptions are so detailed-we tend to take things like the countryside for granted at times.
The heron has a magic all it's own and she wants to save her father....he spends much time on the phone doing work. She entertains herself as the stepmother is always busy with the new baby.
She show more studies the heron and discovers lots of things about how the bird lives and survives in the marsh.
She discovers many treasures and she also finds out her ailing father has not been taking his medicines! Someone has also been shooting arrows at the heron! Magic happens!
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). show less

The Blue Heron is a fine example of Avi's accessible proses for the middle school reader. He successfully weaves an adventurous tale of young Maggie, dealing with family health and job issues while on summer vacation. She escapes and delves into the magical world of the blue heron when adult like responsibilities become to much for her to handle. His descriptions of the blue heron and the magical play on light, fog and mist of the marsh habitat will envelope the reader interested in nature and its surroundings. Young adult readers coming to terms with a divorced parent's new family can easily identify with Maggie's expectations and doubts about spending the summer with them. Unable, and often unwilling, to express her true feelings, Avi show more creates a strong and curious Maggie, as the main character of the book. Not sure she is up to the responsibility of confronting her father on his unusual behavior, she willingly takes up the challenge to protect the heron from a willful young neighbor bent on harming the heron. show less

Two young people the school outcast & a troubled young girl (who has lost her father) become friends when they find out they are both stalking a Great Blue Heron.

The young boy stalks w/ bow & arrow. The young girl stalks w/ heart & patience.

The book was sad, but not as sad as I had expected it to be...

There is quite a bit of suspense as well.....

Very well written and now I know why Avi was such a popular author

The story of a pivotal summer for the thirteen-year-old Maggie tells how her fight to protect a solitary blue heron with which she identifies distracts her from dealing with strange new tensions in her family.

While spending the month of August on the Massachusetts shore with her father, stepmother, and their new baby, almost thirteen-year-old Maggie finds beauty in and draws strength from a great blue heron, even as the family around her unravels.
Lexile: 590

gentle family & nature story