This was a story filled with adventure unknown, trials unexpected, seemingly vindictive birds (that I loved!), and expressions of love you were not expecting.

Loah is a young girl left mostly on her own as her mother travels the world in search of feathered friends. Don’t worry, they are Loah’s friends too, in fact she’s named after one, and knows all about them, but sometimes those trips feel like one too many. It’s hard to blame someone for their absence when they are doing what they love, but sometimes you want to be the priority. This time around, Loah isn’t just missing her mother, she REALLY needs her, and she’s certain something is amiss. While their communication is sketchy as she travels abroad, she’s never out of contact this long, add to that how things at home as escalating rather rapidly with red stamped notices, and uninvited inspectors appearing, as well as her caretakers falling under the weather, and life is anything but a nest of security. It’s downright fraught with obstacles. Some of the burden is alleviated when she makes a new friend that really needs to her help, but even that starts to grow beyond what an eleven-year-old should have to handle. She just needs her mother’s guiding light, but first she needs to find her mother, or at least someone that believes her enough to follow her heart.

Watching Loah come out of her proverbial shell was fortifying. It reminds us that there isn’t anything we can’t do if only we set out minds to it, and nothing in this world stronger than love. Whether it be love of a person, place, or thing, it can be the anchor that holds us still long enough to sort out the what ifs and see the way out. Loah may have needed her mom, but it wasn’t for the strength to do the right thing, or the courage to find her way, but for the fortification her presence provided in declaring her world safe, warm, and loving.



**copy received for review, opinions are my own
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