Catherine, Called Birdy
by Karen Cushman
Narrated by Kate Maberly
Why You'll Love This
A medieval teenage girl's diary — furious, funny, and shockingly relatable across 800 years.
- Great if you want: feminist spirit in an unlikely historical setting
- Listening experience: breezy and episodic — each entry a small comedic battle
- Narration: Maberly captures Birdy's exasperated, headstrong voice convincingly
- Skip if: you need a traditional plot arc rather than diary vignettes
About This Book
Catherine, called Birdy by her family, is the fourteen-year-old daughter of an English lord in 1290, and she is determined to avoid the fate of becoming someone's wife. She records her daily life in a diary that captures the rhythms of medieval existence with irreverent honesty, cataloguing the parade of unsuitable suitors her father keeps producing and her increasingly creative strategies for driving them away. When a suitor arrives who is too rich to refuse and too repellent to contemplate, Catherine's resourcefulness faces its most serious test.
Kate Maberly performs the diary entries with the lively impatience of a clever girl chafing against every constraint around her, giving Catherine's voice a period authenticity that never feels stiff or academic. The episodic diary format translates naturally to audio, with each entry functioning as a small, self-contained comedy that builds to the larger question of Catherine's fate. The production captures Karen Cushman's achievement of making the thirteenth century feel both foreign and entirely recognizable.