The Nature of Small Birds - A Book Review

 In 1975, three thousand children were airlifted out of Saigon to be adopted into Western homes. When Mindy, one of those children, announces her plans to return to Vietnam to find her birth mother, her loving adoptive family is suddenly thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival into their lives.

Though her father supports Mindy's desire to meet her family of origin, he struggles privately with an unsettling fear that he'll lose the daughter he's poured his heart into. Mindy's mother undergoes the emotional roller coaster inherent in the adoption of a child from a war-torn country, discovering the joy hidden amid the difficulties. And Mindy's sister helps her sort through relics that whisper of the effect the trauma of war has had on their family--but also speak of the beauty of overcoming.

Told through three strong voices in three compelling timelines, The Nature of Small Birds is a hopeful story that explores the meaning of family far beyond genetic code. 

My Thoughts: 

I thought I would love this book being a parent of adopted children, but I really hated that it went back-and-forth between four or five characters so it made it very hard to follow who was telling each chapter. We are in the past in one chapter with a female narrator, and in the next we jump to the future and it's from a man's perspective. No only changing people, but also changing time frames. The story was interesting, as I was not familiar with operation babylift, but it didn’t really grip my attention the way other adoption books have in the past.  I’m only giving this one three stars out of five.