Chickadee by Louise Erdrich is the fourth book in the Birchbark series for young adults, and I read it out loud to my boys last year. We love this series, and I highly recommend it. You can find links to my reviews of the previous books on my book recommendations page, starting with The Birchbark House.

I should also note that Louise Erdrich has always been my favorite writer of adult books. I have followed her work since I was introduced to it in my American literature class in college. She’s a wonderful storyteller and writes beautiful prose. I was thrilled to learn that she has written this series for young adults too, and I think they are some of my favorite books by her.

In this book, Omakayas is grown up, and now she has a family of her own, including her eight-year-old twin boys, Chickadee and Makoons. I loved the previous books about Omakayas so much that I didn’t feel ready to focus on new characters yet, but, of course, I should not have felt that way because Erdrich drew me in with her lovable cast, suspenseful story and beautiful writing. When Chickadee is kidnapped, we are taken on a journey with him as he learns that despite his size, he can still fight his way back to his family. And I was delighted to see that Two Strike has become a new favorite character of mine as well.

I am not going to tell you any more about this book, but I will urge you to read it. If you haven’t already, you need to start at the beginning of the series. You won’t regret it! These books are delightful enough to read whether you are a youth or an adult.