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Owl in Love
by
I am in love with Mr. Lindstrom, my science teacher. I found out where he lives and every night I perch on a tree branch outside his bedroom window and watch him sleep. He sleeps in his underwear: Fruit of the Loom, size 34.
Owl Tycho, the shape-shifting daughter of "simple witches", is a high school student by day and owl by night. When her nightly vigil over her scien
...morePaperback, 224 pages
Published
June 7th 2004
by HMH Books for Young Readers
(first published October 25th 1993)
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This book is quirky, unique, and surprisingly touching. I wondered how the author was going to pull off the were-owl aspect, but as Kindl seems to have created a sort of alternate Earth where magic is possible and shapeshifting occasionally crops up in families, it wasn't nearly as farfetched (in terms of the story's internal logic, that is) as I'd thought. Certainly Kindl does an excellent job of conveying Owl's detached, alien perspective on human life while still making her a sympathetic char
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Dec 21, 2009
Mariel
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
don't stand so close to me
Recommended to Mariel by:
I will fowl you
I really liked this. Displacement and confusion as fairytale with the food chain as the (animal) kingdom. Owl in Love is about a girl/owl named Owl. She's in uncomfortable skin that is not her own when she's a girl or bird. As a bird she's still torn between worlds based on new longings, and more predatory urges. Her parents are straight-up bird. I felt she was more bird than girl in a different way (less nesting and more free flying), and somehow felt closer to her birdish thoughts than human o
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Maybe some of you may recall my tweet about this book being a creeper. I still stand by that tweet. I will say, I did warm up to Owl In Love a bit, but definitely feel a little too old for it. Owl In Love by Patrice Kindl is about this 14 year old girl named Owl who is -get this- a wereowl. She has a creeper crush on her teacher Mr. Lindstrom, who is pushing mid-forties, and somewhat balding. Basically she turns into an owl and watches him from the window. I know gross, right! Anyhoo, I spent mo
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Patrice Kindl is my new favorite writer. This was the oddest book I've read lately, which is saying something. A girl with witchy parents can change into an owl. Is head-over-heels in love with her science teacher (who shares the same last name as my cute college zoology professor, funnily enough). Struggles with trying to fit in with classmates when she can't even eat human food. And more . . .
Dark and funny. Strangely sensual. ...more
Dark and funny. Strangely sensual. ...more
I am in love with Mr. Lindstrom, my science teacher. I found out where he lives and every night I perch on a tree branch outside his bedroom window and watch him sleep. He sleeps in his underwear: Fruit of the Looms, size 34.
Owl Tycho is a fourteen-year-old girl who can turn into an owl, or
perhaps an owl who can turn into a girl. She’s not just a girl with
magic powers: she looks a little like an owl in human form, her blood
is black and her skin is grayish, and she lives on a diet of mice and
inse ...more
Owl Tycho is a fourteen-year-old girl who can turn into an owl, or
perhaps an owl who can turn into a girl. She’s not just a girl with
magic powers: she looks a little like an owl in human form, her blood
is black and her skin is grayish, and she lives on a diet of mice and
inse ...more
I really enjoyed Owl as a character; I loved her owlish view on everything. I liked her parents a whole lot too, and I enjoyed Dawn, the girl who insists on becoming Owl's friend. (Dawn's voice didn't feel 100 percent authentically teen for me, but it was quite entertaining all the same, and her situation and reaction to that situation seemed on target to me, so I didn't mind about the slippage in her voice so much.)
I had some reservations about the parts of the story that were from Houle/David' ...more
I had some reservations about the parts of the story that were from Houle/David' ...more
I had a long drive ahead of me and stopped in a used bookstore where I bought this book based on the title. I really have to stop doing that. The drive was boring; my 15 year old handed me the book and said, "Read." She hasn't done that in years. So I read. By the time I hit chapter 5 the entire car full of relatives was begging me to stop reading "that creepy, stalker book" with an underage girl who has a crush on her 40 some year old teacher and is encouraged by the parents. I skipped to the l
...more
actually really loved this book!!! i loved all of the characters and thought the owl was portrayed super well with experiencing things as a young girl and experiencing things as an animal.
pretty refreshing to read something light and simple!!
i would definitely recommend.
pretty refreshing to read something light and simple!!
i would definitely recommend.
It's got some flaws, but the quirky main character won me over and carried the day.
...more
What an unexpected little gem!
Owl in love manages to be a fully fraught supernatural teenage romance without spilling over into maudlin self-importance. Just the right amount of humor -- Not parody. Though there is some similarity to Switchers, Kindl tells a delightful story and I would happily read more by her.
"Owls are not house-proud. The almost obsessive tidiness of this room made me uneasy. A few rotting branches or some old leaves would have made the place look a lot homier, in my opinion. ...more
Owl in love manages to be a fully fraught supernatural teenage romance without spilling over into maudlin self-importance. Just the right amount of humor -- Not parody. Though there is some similarity to Switchers, Kindl tells a delightful story and I would happily read more by her.
"Owls are not house-proud. The almost obsessive tidiness of this room made me uneasy. A few rotting branches or some old leaves would have made the place look a lot homier, in my opinion. ...more
Fifteen-year-old Owl's crush on her 40-something science teacher is so sincere, so ardent, I couldn't help but admiring her devotion. She had a kind of Anne Shirley way of describing things--romanticizing the hole in her love's battered shoe and the rumpled tweed jacket he sports. And at first the fact that she watches him every night as he sleeps seems a little creepy, until you realize she's doing it perched on a branch outside his window in between hunting for mice and voles. Owl is an owl. O
...more
4.5 stars!
an utterly unique and charming fantasy.
owl is a weird owl raised by two witch parents
who are just a little eccentric. they have named
their daughter owl and have helped her best
they can in her growing up to be a healthy
wereowl.
owl is in love with her 40 year old science
teacher. she spends much of her time perched
on a tree outside his bedroom window at night,
spying on him. (ha!) but then she noticed a boy
who is lurking near her teacher's home, and a
mystery begins to unravel for owl.
told ...more
an utterly unique and charming fantasy.
owl is a weird owl raised by two witch parents
who are just a little eccentric. they have named
their daughter owl and have helped her best
they can in her growing up to be a healthy
wereowl.
owl is in love with her 40 year old science
teacher. she spends much of her time perched
on a tree outside his bedroom window at night,
spying on him. (ha!) but then she noticed a boy
who is lurking near her teacher's home, and a
mystery begins to unravel for owl.
told ...more
I was just looking through some opening chapters for various YA books at the library. I ended up taking this home and reading it almost non-stop. Immediately endearing, peculiar, and oddly real for a story of a girl wereowl… I want to read more Patrice Kindl.
Just love it! She's a wereowl, and she's madly in love with her middle-aged teacher. It's smart and charming and bittersweet all at once!
...more
"I am Owl. It is my name as well as my nature. There are birds of prey in my family going back hundreds of years ..."
Every time I reread this book, I fall in love with its voice all over again. ...more
Every time I reread this book, I fall in love with its voice all over again. ...more
Very odd, but original and extraordinary. The sustained alien POV is quite remarkable
This book is about a high school students falling in love with her science teacher. I don't think that there's a message in the book or neither a quote to represent a message in the book. I would recommend this book to a friend so that they wouldn't get bored during the weekend. This book always kept me busy and I can read this book in my spare time. I like how the author expresses the main character's feelings in a way that I can understand.
...more
This books is entirely different from other shapeshifter-stories. Owl, the fourteen-year-old heroine, is really more bird of prey than human girl. She has black blood and therefore greyish skin, a heart-shaped face featuring large yellow eyes and feathery hair ending in a widow's peak. She does not eat human food, because she cannot digest it without losing her dual nature (after trying a sandwich she was not able to take off for days). Instead she hunts at night and eats yummy rats, mice and ha
...more
I think it needs explanation why I read this. The only excuse I can find, is that I read the word "were-owl" on the back and was made curious. Even when I started reading it, found out about the crush this thirteen year old girl had on her forty-something teacher, and, worse, that it was actually a teenage girl read, I still couldn't get myself to stop reading.
Actually, for the first time in a while, I was compelled to read a book when reading Owl in Love. That's not to say its exceptional. It's ...more
Actually, for the first time in a while, I was compelled to read a book when reading Owl in Love. That's not to say its exceptional. It's ...more
I bought Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl on a complete whim. It turns out to be the author's debut novel. In it, Owl Tycho, an owl "by name and by nature" spends her days as a teenage girl and her evenings as a barn owl (Tyto alba).
Her name is so similar to what she becomes, that one can just imagine the other characters in the book doing a double take whenever Owl is first introduced. Owl, though, has other obsessions — namely her science teacher who is more than twice her age. Why he intrigues he ...more
Her name is so similar to what she becomes, that one can just imagine the other characters in the book doing a double take whenever Owl is first introduced. Owl, though, has other obsessions — namely her science teacher who is more than twice her age. Why he intrigues he ...more
I decided to re-read Owl in Love since it has been 5 or 6 years since the last time I re-read it, and I've changed and grown a lot as a reader. The beginning of the book is really rocky as it is just the main character giving the premise of the book with some short stories about what's "happened" so far. Owl, the main character, is a wereowl who falls in love with her science teacher. My favorite thing about the book is how Kindl portrays Owl's love. She has these unattractive descriptions of he
...more
This is Patrice Kindl's first Young Adult novel, and it shows. Her main character, Owl, thinks, talks, and acts like no teenager. Her plot begins slow, never fully develops, and has an insufficient, speedy wrap-up. The story describes a few brief weeks in the life of Owl, who is a shape-shifter and transforms every night into her namesake. She spends her owl-time gazing at her science teacher while he sleeps. She thinks he is her mate for life, if only NY laws allowed this. Her parents support t ...more
Schoolgirl by day, owl by night...
I went into this book having no prior knowledge of it. It was recommended to me by my hometown library, after I gave them a short list of books with romance in them that I loved. I think I'd put down that I loved the language of all the books I gave them, because the main thing I noticed in this book was its lovely language and excellent voice. Owl, our intrepid main character, is old-fashioned (being the daughter of a witch and all) and her voice shows that bri ...more
I went into this book having no prior knowledge of it. It was recommended to me by my hometown library, after I gave them a short list of books with romance in them that I loved. I think I'd put down that I loved the language of all the books I gave them, because the main thing I noticed in this book was its lovely language and excellent voice. Owl, our intrepid main character, is old-fashioned (being the daughter of a witch and all) and her voice shows that bri ...more
This was a fresh, fast-paced, and charming little book. Owl seems a little "autistic spectrum" and that mostly worked for me. The only problem I had with the book was the sections which were about Houle's experiences at the institution. It wasn't clear to me that they were flashbacks, so it felt like they were running in current time, parallel to Owl's experiences. Really, that stuff was what brought him into her life but wasn't current. Confusing. I had a few unanswered questions about why he w
...more
Jul 23, 2012
Brie
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Goofy Middle Schoolers
Shelves:
oh-my-fluffy-youth
When I was 12 I thought this was the greatest book in the world and it was so freaking awesome.
As an adult, I tried to read it again - an endeavor I should have never embarked on.
I started to read it, and it began to lose the magic and the sparkle that had captivated me as a teeny bopper. So I stopped. I wanted it to be as good as I remembered it and not weird because the science teacher Owl has a crush on is old, balding and likes to wear tighty-whiteys. Not swoon-worthy at all to a 14 year old ...more
As an adult, I tried to read it again - an endeavor I should have never embarked on.
I started to read it, and it began to lose the magic and the sparkle that had captivated me as a teeny bopper. So I stopped. I wanted it to be as good as I remembered it and not weird because the science teacher Owl has a crush on is old, balding and likes to wear tighty-whiteys. Not swoon-worthy at all to a 14 year old ...more
A lovely book indeed - Owl, girl by day and shape-shifting bird of prey by night (although she can shift shapes any time really) is in love with Mr. Lindstrom, her science teacher and assumes that she will have to suffer the slings and arrows of unrequited passion, keeping watch over him at night in his Fruit of the Loom underwear from a perch outside his home. But that all changes when a mysterious intruder, a boy, lurking around Mr. Lindstrom, appears and Owl finds herself unsure who she is re
...more
This book is mainly about a girl who is in love with her teacher. She says that she turns into an owl at night and is a normal girl in the morning. Except for her owl-like features (you can picture it). This book is bad because it is so weird. It's like one of your friends turning into a cat and jumping out a window to catch a bird(...weird I know). It is not realistic. I don't like it!!!!!!!! - AMR
...more
Quirky, priceless book. If I'd read it as a child, it would be a childhood favorite, but I read it in my early 20s, and still loved it, enough to write back and forth with the author a couple times. Highly recommended.
* The cover of the book I own is different, showing a girl with her arms / wings outstretched. I think it's a better representation of the story than this cover. ...more
* The cover of the book I own is different, showing a girl with her arms / wings outstretched. I think it's a better representation of the story than this cover. ...more
Kindl is a very unique writer. I was blown away by this simple story and the telling of it.
I love this book as much at 27 as I did when I was 15.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Were-owl has crush on teacher? [s] | 4 | 712 | Apr 21, 2020 04:58PM | |
| What's the Name o...: SOLVED. YA - A girl who can change into an owl [s] | 5 | 27 | Jun 28, 2014 01:46PM | |
| What's the Name o...: SOLVED. teen girl shape-shifts into owl [s] | 4 | 45 | Sep 15, 2013 04:12PM |
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Childhood:
I was born in Alplaus New York in 1951, the youngest of four daughters. My father is a mechanical engineer, my mother a housewife. My family is very nice – I like them all a lot. As a child I loved animals and read obsessively.
We had (still have) a family cottage on Lake George. The people who live next door are life-long friends. On summer weekdays during my childhood there were ten fem ...more
I was born in Alplaus New York in 1951, the youngest of four daughters. My father is a mechanical engineer, my mother a housewife. My family is very nice – I like them all a lot. As a child I loved animals and read obsessively.
We had (still have) a family cottage on Lake George. The people who live next door are life-long friends. On summer weekdays during my childhood there were ten fem ...more
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