The Theory of Hummingbirds: A blog tour post!

To celebrate the UQP release of The Theory of Hummingbirds, here's my blog tour stop for the #AusYABloggers tour (more stops here)!

Here's a brief synopsis:

Alba has been best friends with Levi since forever. They’re both obsessed with hummingbirds and spend their lunchtimes hiding out in the school library. Alba normally doesn’t mind that Levi’s got a science theory on just about everything. But when he becomes convinced the school librarian has discovered a wormhole in her office, Alba thinks maybe he’s gone too far.

Then there’s Cleo. That’s what Alba calls her left foot, which was twisted in the wrong direction at birth and has been strapped in a brace for most of Alba’s life. With the final cast about to come off, Alba is set on running in her first cross-country race. But what if Levi doesn’t believe she can do it?

Alba’s only ever wanted to be ‘normal’, so why does it feel like she’s losing more than Cleo and a pair of crutches?

My review:

This was such a cute book! Not to mention that the cover is absolutely stunning!

Alba was such an adorable character, and I loved how she tried to not let her club foot get in the way of her own goals! I also feel that Alba represents children at her age, not understanding how others feel as much as they really should, whilst really focusing on what they want or aim for. This was exhibited really well in the friendship between Levi and Alba. 

The tiff between the two friends felt rather superficial and only surface-level, as if they were just having a rather big disagreement. This helped shape how Alba feel different without her bestie, and I sure felt her discontentment and lack of self-confidence. Levi was a caring friend, and I really liked how he also had something different about him- being asthmatic. I don't see a lot of positive asthmatic representation in books, so this was nice to see. I loved how inquistive Levi was.

Seeing how Alba shaped her character in this short and sweet book demonstrates that kids are often tougher and more determined than adults think. I think that's an important takeaway from this book.

Overall, I enjoyed this cute #ownvoices book!

I rate this title a 3.5/5.

About the author:

Children’s author Michelle Kadarusman grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and has also lived many years throughout Indonesia and in Canada. Her children’s novels have been nominated for various awards and honours including the Canadian Governor General's Award, USBBY Outstanding International Book List, the Freeman Book Award and the Malka Penn Book Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. Her work is published internationally and has been translated to Spanish and Turkish.

Links to check out:
UQP | Goodreads | Michelle's Facebook | Michelle's Twitter | Michelle's Insta | Michelle's Goodreads