SOLVED. Middle Grade Fantasy novel featuring a magical pet bird named trouble, and a character who goes by Pen. [s]

[jude]

Hello! I’m in search of a book I read when I was a lot younger, possibly around 2013-2015. It was a middle grade fantasy novel about a girl who somehow met other kids with magic. It may have been dark green.

Some specific details I remember:
- The main group of kids used birds to communicate and kept these birds in their coat pockets.
- The main character received a bird who didn’t cooperate with her, and she names it Trouble.
- One of the characters is described as having a pea-green coat or a pea coat? There’s some reason for a closet or wardrobe to relate to her, she may travel through it?
- In the first chapter the main character encounters either an antagonist named Pen, or maybe this is her own name
- Another character may possibly be called Oliver, at any rate there is a mysterious boy and his hand is blackened or bruised and he tries to hide it (possibly relating to a curse?)

Thank you so much in advance!! I sadly cannot recall much of the actual plot and remember skimming the end, but if I remember anything else I’ll edit it in :)

[Becca]

I think that's The Water and the Wild by K.E. Ormsbee

[jude]

Becca wrote: "I think that's The Water and the Wild by K.E. Ormsbee"

YOU'RE RIGHT!!! Looking at it, I think I may have gotten some details confused but that is definitely it. Thank you so much!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, jude.

The Water and the Wild (book 1) of The Water and the Wild series by K.E. Ormsbee - Becca's find.