Hummingbird

Olive and Hatch witness the chicken eggs in Mr. Watson’s room hatch. Olive reflects that brokenness can sometimes be beautiful, such as the broken eggs and Emily Dickinson’s unconventional use of breaks and dashes in her poetry. Mama helps her onto the school stage during rehearsal, and Olive feels it goes well—until her script falls. Feeling confident, she gets out of her wheelchair to retrieve it but doesn’t notice Dylan spinning across the stage. Even before impact, she hears her thigh bone break, which she equates to the sound of heartbreak.

Hatch, Mama, and Coach Malone rush to Olive’s side and support her through the pain. Olive is embarrassed by her screams of pain, but Mama reminds her to roar like Narnia’s Aslan, and Grace calls out that she and the other sixth graders will roar with her. This support comforts Olive, but she knows her broken bone will change everything, as “birds don’t fly broken” (311). Grace replies “you’ve got a best friend who can make you wings” (311).

Recovering from her break, Olive feels a deep sense of loss: She has lost both her chance to be in a play and her chance to find