Birdland

Amid the sparkle and hum of a New York City winter, Jed and his best friend, Flyer, are filming a documentary of their neighborhood. In the process, Jed confronts painful memories of his older brother, Zeke, a poet who loved jazzman Charlie "Bird" Parker and who died, leaving behind his CDs, a notebook, and a lot of unanswered questions. When Jed encounters a mysterious homeless girl he thinks holds the key to connecting him to Zeke, it could be his only way to unlock his deepest sorrow and discover how to be -- who to be -- on his own. As true and lyrical as a sax solo, Birdland touches down at the core of the human heart and sends it soaring. "The beauty of this rigorously unsentimental novel about a family in crisis is the way that Mack, even as she lets her characters' imaginations soar, keeps her story grounded in the pain of broken things...the words remain powerfully ambiguous, the healing poignantly attenuated." -- Booklist Tracy Mack's debut novel, Drawing Lessons, was named a Booklist Top Ten First Novel of 2000, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, a Bank Street College Best Book, and a Teen People NEXT Award finalist. A book editor and devoted yogini, she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and the Berkshires with her husband, Michael Citrin. Dion Graham has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, internationally, including London's Royal National Theatre, in films, and in several hit television series. His critically acclaimed performances have been praised as thoughtful, compelling, vivid, and full of life.