The Cuckoo's Child

by Suzanne Freeman

Eleven-year-old Mia refuses to believe that her parents are not coming back after they are reported lost at sea.

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Sisters

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been accused of co-writing not one, but two, very slow YA novels. When I thought about why that might be, I realized almost all of my favorite YA novels are slow. This one is no exception. When reviewers say this novel is "slow," I'd like to think that's code for "closely examines everyday life." When tragedies happen, it's amazing how quickly life moves on and people fall back into their routines, albeit damaged or strengthened by past events. I enjoy a fast paced thriller now and then, but those stories don't stick with me. This one will get under your skin in the most unassuming way...

[HeavyReader · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first thing I have to say about this book is that when I requested it on Bookmooch, I didn’t realize it was intended for children/young adults. Perhaps I would have a different opinion of this book if I had read it when I was between the ages of ten and fourteen, but I do read books intended for young adults occasionally, so it’s not as if I am totally removed from the genre.

The second thing I have to say about this book is that I read it in a few hours in one evening (and stayed up later than I’d planned in order to finish reading it).So the story did hold my attention, although the reading went fast because the writing was simplistic.

Also simplistic were the characters. With the exception of the protagonist (who tells the story, so the reader gets some insight into her thought process), all of the characters were very flat. Everyone else in the book is written in order to advance the main character’s story. All of the other characters seem to be bouncing around with in indication of why they are doing what they do, other than to give the protagonist reasons for what she does.

Was I supposed to like and or sympathize with the main character? I neither liked nor sympathized with her. Her recollections about her life show that she was a selfish brat before her parents vanished at sea. This character is not action out because her family has suffered a trauma. She’s been selfishly acting out for quite a while.

How old is the protagonist supposed to be anyway? Sometimes she’s presented as if she were somewhere in the eleven to thirteen age range, intensely interested in and intensely embarrassed by sexuality. Sometimes she pouts and has tantrums like an eight year old. Sometimes she analyzes situations as if she were a teenager or an adult. I know teenagers are often inconsistent in behavior and beliefs, but this character’s shifts simply made her seem poorly written to me, as if the author didn’t know who this kid was.

Why did it seem as if the other characters in the family were barely disturbed by the disappearance of the mother and father? Sure, they were older than the protagonist, but even the teenage sisters seemed to be proceeding with no real upset at the loss of their parents.

Maybe this book is simplistic because it was aimed at children. I don’t know. I do know that although this book did help me pass and evening, I can’t really say I enjoyed it very much.

[Karen Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mia has been living an unconventional life as an American child abroad, when her parents disappear and are presumed dead, and she and her older sisters have to return to the States. Mia was already a child who didn’t fit in to her free-spirited, intellectual, non-conformist family, a cuckoo’s child, growing up in another bird’s nest. She has only ever wanted to fit in and be normal, even though we soon realize she is not suited to the kind of people she wants to fit in with. The loss of her parents, especially her mother, is naturally devastating, and over a long, hot Tennessee summer we follow her painful and self destructive path as she learns to deal with the massive changes in her life. I liked how I cared for this character, even though she was making life miserable for the people close to her. The author sets the story in the early sixties, a time of social upheaval in the US, and a reflection of the turmoil in Mia’s life.

[Jonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a young adult book that will still speak to people who grew up in the 60s, especially if they lived through humid Tennessee summers. The book has a child for a narrator but there are parts that have an unchildlike voice like is found in To Kill a Mockingbird. It captures with the inner thoughts and drama on what goes on in young girls mind while trying to deal with a devastating lost.

[Bridgette Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember getting this book from my middle school library. I read it with my grandmother during one of my mother's business trips. I was (and still am) a voracious reader but I feel like we definitely read it with one another. I remember identifying so much with Mia. While my mom wasn't lost at sea she did go away a lot for work trips and I was very unhappy about that as a child. I was also dealing with the start of depression, anxiety and ocd and would also do rituals sometimes to feel in control. It left me feeling very much like an outsider when it came to other kids and I also felt like a cuckoo bird. It's been almost 16 years since I've read the book but I still think about it now and then. It's forever linked to that point in my life and is such a happy memory of time spent with my grandmother. I can't wait to reread it and see if it holds up to the memory of my first read.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This appears to have fallen out of print, and is an underrecognized gem of a book. It is about a young very perceptive girl living in Beirut who idealizes America. When she is forced to live with her aunt in Tennessee her observations are those of an outsider, both from America and from the verge of adolescence. Her wisdom highlights the compromises that adults make in their daily lives, as she longs for a Norman Rockwell America that perhaps never existed. The perspective is similar to that in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, To Kill A Mockingbird, or even The Book Thief. Highly, highly recommended.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea for this was interesting--a young girl (age unknown, and that was part of the problem with this book--I couldn't get a grasp on Mia as a person due to her varying actions/thoughts--it seems she was preteen, but often acted like a bratty eight year old) dealing with missing parents and a new living situation (from Beirut to Tennessee) during the early '60s. Why didn't I like this book? I didn't like Mia. She's hateful, short-tempered, self-serving, dismissive of other people's feelings, petulant and whiny. By the end of the book, I honestly didn't care WHAT became of her. I see quite a few reviewers loved this book. I can't imagine why, but reading tastes do differ.

[Talla Bavand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can read again and again.

[Arminzerella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this out to myself because it had been on a list of things I planned to weed, except I noticed this statement across the top of the front cover, “Best Book of the Year – Boston Globe.” And I thought, Hm. Best book, eh? Well, seems like I should read this one before pitching it.

In the beginning, Mia lives in Beirut with her family. Her mother and father are both very adventurous and intelligent people, and her sisters are her mother’s children from a previous marriage. Mia’s sisters are fluent in French and closer in age and in friendship to one another than they are to Mia. Mia doesn’t remember much about life in the States, but she has this longing to go back there – to have a “normal” American life and not this strange existence that the rest of her immediate family seems to thrive on. She gets her wish, albeit in the worst way possible. Her folks decide to take a sailing trip and become lost at sea. Their vessel is never recovered. Mia and her sisters are sent to live with their aunt Kit (mother’s sister) in Ionia, Tennessee. It’s a difficult adjustment for everyone, but especially for Mia who can’t bear the thought of her parents being dead. She pretty much explodes into Kit’s life – breaks her arms, gets a concussion, breaks up her romance with her adulterous boss, throws her home and life into disorder. Mia does a really good job for awhile, pretending everything is ok, and living her very “normal” life – until she realizes that it’s not her, and that she’s much happier being herself. While the book ends on a mostly positive note, you know that the family still has a lot of work ahead of them.

I feel like I’ve read a lot of similar things, so possibly the fact that this was the best book of the year in 1996 has something to do with the publication date more than the content. Troubled pre-teen, has lots of problems, many of them not anything she can control, falls in with a bad crowd, hurts her real friend, rails against her family situation, won’t talk to anyone about her pain (but no one really tries to discuss theirs with her either – dysfunctional, you might say), starts stealing (because she’s looking for something), goes a little crazy in her loneliness and in her hopes that her parents will be returned to her safely. She has always wanted to keep her mother home and still and to herself.

The story isn’t bad, but it’s not very fast-paced either. Mia’s behavior is kind of irritating throughout, even though it’s easy to understand why she feels like she does. I think I’m not going to keep this one.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was somewhat interesting because I related to the child in the story. She was missing the United States when her family moved to Beirut. But then her parents disappeared and she had to move in with her aunt and family in Ionia, Tennessee. After living with her aunt, she was starting to miss living in Beirut. She is called The Cuckoo's Child because she is an unwanted child after her parents have disappeared.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story of Mia who lived in Beirut with her parents, but always wishing to be back in the USA. Her parents disappear on a boating trip and Mia is moved back to Tennessee with relatives. She has a hard time fitting in. She was very bratty and impossible for a while, and that was getting a little wearisome, but overall it is definitely worth the read.

[Elizabeth Gibbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange book about a nine-year-old whose parents are lost at sea and sisters are older and snobby. She believes that voices in her head are telling her to do things, and if she doesn't do them she won't see her parents again. [A lot of crude comments are made by children just learning about sex.]

[Miss Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

gr 6-9 249pgs



1962, Tennessee. All 11 year old Mia wants is to do all the things that "normal" American children do, but doing that is a challenge since her family lives in Beirut. After her parents disappear in a plane accident, Mia and her half sisters are sent to live with their aunt in Tennessee. Even with living in America, Mia still feels out of place.

[LeAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book involves themes of faith. Although it is not written from an evangelical perspective, the author does not appear to be ignorant or anti. As a TCK, Mia is finding it difficult to fit into America after living in Beiruit. She feels abandoned by her parents who are missing at sea. The book was a bit too consciously psychological for my taste.

[Young Lightning in Dark Sky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book with a slight lack of detail concerning Mia's loss of love she never knew she had, and the gain of some that was never plausible in her brain.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I read for mother/daughter book group.

[Lolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book in middle school. I read it over and over and finding it on here makes me want to read it again.

[Margaret]

I liked this book a lot - this would be a difficult situation for any child and I think the portrayal of how Mia handled it was realistic.