January 17, 2022

Forever Birchwood, by Danielle Daniel

I could not have loved Danielle Daniel’s Forever Birchwood any better, her middle grade debut following her success as an author/illustrator with picture books including the award-winning Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox. (Daniel also published a memoir The Dependent in 2016; her first novel for adults, Daughters of the Deer, is coming in March; Danielle Daniel is no slouch!).

Forever Birchwood is a dream of a book, the perfect pick for anybody who ever longed to start a babysitting club or is still thinking about Judy Blume’s Just as Long As We’re Together. A nice dose of nostalgia for those of us who grew up reading those books brand new, Daniel’s novel is set during the 1980s during the week of Wolf’s thirteenth birthday as she and her three best friends begin to contemplate the possibility of changes ahead. Wolf is also close to her grandmother, who educates her about her Indigenous ancestors’ ties to the natural world, which makes Wolf feel extra devastated at the prospect of Birchwood, her friends’ clubhouse and the nature around it, being torn down to make way for a new subdivision. Even worse, Wolf’s real-estate mom is pro-development and she and her new boyfriend Roger are spearheading the project.

The most delightful part of this story, which features all the hallmarks of middle grade goodness, is its specificity. Set in Sudbury, Ontario, where Daniel was born and raised, the story takes on the unique aspects of Sudbury’s culture and landscape. Wolf and her friends are passionate about Sudbury’s regreening plan, reforestation and clean-up to counter decades of industrial pollution, which makes their attachment to wild places and the trees and animals there so much more precious. Sudbury’s mining industry, obviously, plays a big role in their characters lives—Wolf keeps special possessions in her grandfather’s old miners’ lunchbox. Mining is dangerous, perilous work, but it’s also the foundation their town is built on.

I don’t read tons of middle grade fiction, but Forever Birchwood is the kind of title that makes me question why that is. The story and characters show emotional complexity, the story’s packed with emotional heft, and while part of the appeal was definitely nostalgia, this novel has a unique and creative richness that is entirely its own.

I’m going to be interviewing Danielle Daniel at her book launch this Saturday. If you’d like to join us and pick up a copy from Another Story Books (and you should!) registration and purchasing information can be found right here.