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Seabird
Inspired by a true story, Seabird follows the early teen years of Kartini, whose forced isolation ignites her desire for freedom and the right to have a say in the decisions that shape her life.
Kartini was born in 1879 during Dutch-colonized Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies. Due to her high-born status, Kartini is forced to enter home seclusion just before her twelfth birthday with the intention that she will remain home until she is married.
During seclusion, Kartini, who is fluent in the Dutch language, begins a self-directed education and writes letters to a former schoolmate named Lesty. This period of isolation sparks her interest in feminist thinking and ignites her desire to improve education opportunities for all Javanese girls and women.
In Seabird, Governor General’s Award finalist Michelle Kadarusman shows us that no matter how powerless you feel, your voice can have great impact, and by virtue of writing down your dreams and ideas, you can inspire generations to come.
Kartini was born in 1879 during Dutch-colonized Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies. Due to her high-born status, Kartini is forced to enter home seclusion just before her twelfth birthday with the intention that she will remain home until she is married.
During seclusion, Kartini, who is fluent in the Dutch language, begins a self-directed education and writes letters to a former schoolmate named Lesty. This period of isolation sparks her interest in feminist thinking and ignites her desire to improve education opportunities for all Javanese girls and women.
In Seabird, Governor General’s Award finalist Michelle Kadarusman shows us that no matter how powerless you feel, your voice can have great impact, and by virtue of writing down your dreams and ideas, you can inspire generations to come.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published September 30, 2025
1 person is currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Kadarusman
10 books74 followersMichelle Kadarusman is originally from Australia and Indonesia and often shares her cultural background in her work. She is twice-nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award and her work has been translated into Spanish, German, Japanese and Turkish. Her middle-grade novels have earned many nominations and honors, including the Freeman Book Awards, Green Earth Books Awards, USBBY Outstanding International Books and Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children's Literature. She lives in Australia and Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 3, 2025
This book truly reminded me how much I love reading stories about countries and cultures that I would have otherwise not likely understood. The story of Kartini really made me feel so many things. Fantastic read.
September 2, 2025
Michelle Kadarusman grew up in Australia and is of Indonesian heritage on her father’s side. As an adult, she spent some time in his ancestral homeland but has lived in Canada since 2000. I’ve been aware of her children’s books for a while. Two of them have been shortlisted (in the children’s literature category) for Canada’s Governor General’s Award.
Seabird
, her eighth title, is my first experience reading her.
As the subject for her novel, Kadarusman has taken the extraordinary figure of Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879-1904), the intellectually gifted and determined daughter of a progressive Javanese Regent in the colonial Dutch East Indies, who arranged for his children to attend a Dutch elementary school. Kartini, who lived to the age of 25 (dying shortly after the birth of her first and only son), would ultimately be regarded as an iconic feminist. She was a prominent advocate for female emancipation and education. In her author’s note, Kadarusman writes that she has tried to remain true to the basic facts of her subject’s life.
The novel opens in 1892 with Kartini, a girl of twelve who loves learning, being barred from attending school. She is confined to her elite Muslim family’s compound in preparation for marriage. At the time, “pingit” was still a traditional practice in Java, requiring girls of noble birth to be secluded from the age of twelve until their wedding. Marriages were arranged by fathers and their close male relatives.
Kartini, we quickly learn, has two mothers. “Ma”, her birth mother, was married at age fourteen but was demoted by age seventeen. She lives away from the main house in a smaller building, and might, Kartini says, even be mistaken for a servant. Three years into the marriage and before Kartini’s birth, her father had taken a second wife “the Lady” (also known as “Mother”). Because of her purer aristocratic pedigree, the Lady holds sway, raising all eleven children, including the eight who are the first wife’s. She is also the enforcer of the customs that restrict the freedoms of the daughters once they reach adolescence. She trains Kartini and her sisters in the decorum, delicacy, deference, and self-effacement that are expected of married noble women.
It should be noted that Ma, or First Mother—who is warm, kind, and gentle—is fully on board with what to the reader are unjust, rigidly controlling practices. Together the two women form a united front. Kartini makes it clear that she’s puzzled by this. “I can’t imagine why they cling so strongly to customs that have caused pain for them both,” she says. I suspect that girls of twelve to fourteen—Kadarusman’s likely intended audience here—will be enraged to read about this tradition. I know I would’ve been at that age. At the same time, we all know that women often take an active role in the oppression of girls and other women—female genital mutilation, for example.
Kartini’s seclusion begins with her being tightly bound in a “kemben.” Each morning, a cloth is wrapped around her chest from armpit to waist by her maid Uka, who breaks into a sweat performing this task. In a letter to her Dutch school friend, Lesty Claasen (the daughter of a colonial administrator who has returned to Amsterdam) Kartini explains that for the first forty days of her seclusion, she was not allowed to leave her bedroom; her window was nailed shut, and the door was locked with a heavy brass key. These traditional ways are never discussed with foreigners. When Lesty still lived in Java, Kartini had been too embarrassed to tell her, a modern European girl, that pingit also meant the curtailment of her formal education.
Kartini is regularly chided by the Lady for her wild ways. How will her father find a suitable husband for one so lacking in decorum? The novel follows her over three years as she pursues a course of self-education, reading the Dutch books and magazines that her father is proud to lend to such an intelligent daughter, corresponding with her friend in Amsterdam, and writing plays for her siblings to perform after school. She has no choice but to submit to Mother’s program of marriage preparation—instruction in embroidery, musical skills, and other ladylike artistic pursuits. Regular “lular” beauty sessions must also be endured. For these, a paste of rice flour, candlenut, and tamarind is smeared over her body to create soft, unblemished skin. The active, energetic girl is expected to lie still for two hours at a time—and do so with a calm mind.
With the Ramayana’s warrior princess, Srikandi, as her model, Kartini strategically picks and chooses her own battles. First, she must deal with her birth mother’s holding back her letters to Lesty. Acknowledging her parents’ concerns that she is not sufficiently “sedate,” she presents the argument to them that her “galloping legs” might be helped if she had an activity to keep them still. She enjoys reading, writing her own stories, plays, essays, and letters. Being allowed to correspond with her friend would be a way for her to continue to improve her Dutch language skills. Her parents agree.
The sympathetic wife of a colonial official, “Tante Marie” Ovink-Soer, has considerable impact on Kartini. Ovink-Soer is a writer and social worker who has a role with a Dutch-language women’s magazine in Java as well. She has already read and published an essay Kartini wrote as a student. Now she gives the girl books by Dutch feminists and encourages her in her writing. She understands—though not as well as Kartini hoped—the girl’s aspirations. The young woman will later manage to have a servant smuggle an essay to Tante Marie. It will be published in the magazine under the pseudonym Srikandi.
As Kartini’s frustration with her imprisonment grows, so do her plans. Ultimately she will have a dramatic and life-changing showdown with her father, and she’ll even go so far as to deliver a manifesto at a public event.
Seabird is very much an educational novel. It does place some demands on young readers, few of whom are likely to have any acquaintance with Indonesia and the Dutch colonialism that figures significantly in the text. I think some might find the early pages of the book challenging—so foreign are the customs. But Kadarusam has a wonderfully lively and relatable central character, whose longing for freedom and autonomy is palpable. She also provides a glossary, which helps. The correspondence between Kartini and Lesty allows the author to address Dutch enslavement and exploitation of the Javanese. Lesty, who herself lives between two cultures, describes the social awakening that occurs when she attends the International Colonial and Export Exhibition in Amsterdam and is horrified to see a mock Javanese village, a human zoo, on display. Kartini’s beloved brother also writes to her from the Netherlands about the prejudice he encounters towards “natives” like himself who attend university there. He recognizes parallels between colonialism and the subjugation of Javanese women.
My only real quibble with the book is the subplot involving the granddaughter of a Chinese pirate queen, a symbol of female independence, reaching out to two young women servants who work for Kartini’s family. It creates a certain excitement, yes, but I found it far-fetched in a book which is otherwise reasonably realistic. I doubt younger readers would be as critical as I am, however.
Thank you to Net Galley and Pajama Press for providing me with a free digital copy of this book. I learned from it, enjoyed it, and recommend it.
Rating: 3.5
As the subject for her novel, Kadarusman has taken the extraordinary figure of Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879-1904), the intellectually gifted and determined daughter of a progressive Javanese Regent in the colonial Dutch East Indies, who arranged for his children to attend a Dutch elementary school. Kartini, who lived to the age of 25 (dying shortly after the birth of her first and only son), would ultimately be regarded as an iconic feminist. She was a prominent advocate for female emancipation and education. In her author’s note, Kadarusman writes that she has tried to remain true to the basic facts of her subject’s life.
The novel opens in 1892 with Kartini, a girl of twelve who loves learning, being barred from attending school. She is confined to her elite Muslim family’s compound in preparation for marriage. At the time, “pingit” was still a traditional practice in Java, requiring girls of noble birth to be secluded from the age of twelve until their wedding. Marriages were arranged by fathers and their close male relatives.
Kartini, we quickly learn, has two mothers. “Ma”, her birth mother, was married at age fourteen but was demoted by age seventeen. She lives away from the main house in a smaller building, and might, Kartini says, even be mistaken for a servant. Three years into the marriage and before Kartini’s birth, her father had taken a second wife “the Lady” (also known as “Mother”). Because of her purer aristocratic pedigree, the Lady holds sway, raising all eleven children, including the eight who are the first wife’s. She is also the enforcer of the customs that restrict the freedoms of the daughters once they reach adolescence. She trains Kartini and her sisters in the decorum, delicacy, deference, and self-effacement that are expected of married noble women.
It should be noted that Ma, or First Mother—who is warm, kind, and gentle—is fully on board with what to the reader are unjust, rigidly controlling practices. Together the two women form a united front. Kartini makes it clear that she’s puzzled by this. “I can’t imagine why they cling so strongly to customs that have caused pain for them both,” she says. I suspect that girls of twelve to fourteen—Kadarusman’s likely intended audience here—will be enraged to read about this tradition. I know I would’ve been at that age. At the same time, we all know that women often take an active role in the oppression of girls and other women—female genital mutilation, for example.
Kartini’s seclusion begins with her being tightly bound in a “kemben.” Each morning, a cloth is wrapped around her chest from armpit to waist by her maid Uka, who breaks into a sweat performing this task. In a letter to her Dutch school friend, Lesty Claasen (the daughter of a colonial administrator who has returned to Amsterdam) Kartini explains that for the first forty days of her seclusion, she was not allowed to leave her bedroom; her window was nailed shut, and the door was locked with a heavy brass key. These traditional ways are never discussed with foreigners. When Lesty still lived in Java, Kartini had been too embarrassed to tell her, a modern European girl, that pingit also meant the curtailment of her formal education.
Kartini is regularly chided by the Lady for her wild ways. How will her father find a suitable husband for one so lacking in decorum? The novel follows her over three years as she pursues a course of self-education, reading the Dutch books and magazines that her father is proud to lend to such an intelligent daughter, corresponding with her friend in Amsterdam, and writing plays for her siblings to perform after school. She has no choice but to submit to Mother’s program of marriage preparation—instruction in embroidery, musical skills, and other ladylike artistic pursuits. Regular “lular” beauty sessions must also be endured. For these, a paste of rice flour, candlenut, and tamarind is smeared over her body to create soft, unblemished skin. The active, energetic girl is expected to lie still for two hours at a time—and do so with a calm mind.
With the Ramayana’s warrior princess, Srikandi, as her model, Kartini strategically picks and chooses her own battles. First, she must deal with her birth mother’s holding back her letters to Lesty. Acknowledging her parents’ concerns that she is not sufficiently “sedate,” she presents the argument to them that her “galloping legs” might be helped if she had an activity to keep them still. She enjoys reading, writing her own stories, plays, essays, and letters. Being allowed to correspond with her friend would be a way for her to continue to improve her Dutch language skills. Her parents agree.
The sympathetic wife of a colonial official, “Tante Marie” Ovink-Soer, has considerable impact on Kartini. Ovink-Soer is a writer and social worker who has a role with a Dutch-language women’s magazine in Java as well. She has already read and published an essay Kartini wrote as a student. Now she gives the girl books by Dutch feminists and encourages her in her writing. She understands—though not as well as Kartini hoped—the girl’s aspirations. The young woman will later manage to have a servant smuggle an essay to Tante Marie. It will be published in the magazine under the pseudonym Srikandi.
As Kartini’s frustration with her imprisonment grows, so do her plans. Ultimately she will have a dramatic and life-changing showdown with her father, and she’ll even go so far as to deliver a manifesto at a public event.
Seabird is very much an educational novel. It does place some demands on young readers, few of whom are likely to have any acquaintance with Indonesia and the Dutch colonialism that figures significantly in the text. I think some might find the early pages of the book challenging—so foreign are the customs. But Kadarusam has a wonderfully lively and relatable central character, whose longing for freedom and autonomy is palpable. She also provides a glossary, which helps. The correspondence between Kartini and Lesty allows the author to address Dutch enslavement and exploitation of the Javanese. Lesty, who herself lives between two cultures, describes the social awakening that occurs when she attends the International Colonial and Export Exhibition in Amsterdam and is horrified to see a mock Javanese village, a human zoo, on display. Kartini’s beloved brother also writes to her from the Netherlands about the prejudice he encounters towards “natives” like himself who attend university there. He recognizes parallels between colonialism and the subjugation of Javanese women.
My only real quibble with the book is the subplot involving the granddaughter of a Chinese pirate queen, a symbol of female independence, reaching out to two young women servants who work for Kartini’s family. It creates a certain excitement, yes, but I found it far-fetched in a book which is otherwise reasonably realistic. I doubt younger readers would be as critical as I am, however.
Thank you to Net Galley and Pajama Press for providing me with a free digital copy of this book. I learned from it, enjoyed it, and recommend it.
Rating: 3.5
January 2, 2026
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
In 1892, Kartini is attending a Dutch school in Jepara, Java, in the then Dutch East Indies. When she turns 12, however, Mother, her father's second wife, requires that she leaves school and begin a period of isolation that is intended to make her a more desirable wife. She must also learn to act like a lady and turn her attention to embroidery and other quiet pursuits. Kartini misses her best friend, Lesty, who has returned to Amsterdam after her father's position in Java is finished. Kartini's mother, Ma, has been relegated to a smaller home because she was not "Raden Ayu" like Mother, and so lost her position in the household. Kartini would much rather study, and is jealous that her brothers are sent to boarding school and then to high education in the Netherlands, and doesn't understand why she can't have the same experience. She does get permission from her father to correspond with Lesty, so finds out that women in other parts of the world have more opportunities than she is allowed. She also talks to two of the maids her age in the household, Yanti and Uka, and helps them solve a mystery involving an invitation from the South Sea Starling to travel the world with her importing business. Kartini's father is impressed with her writing, and allows her to meet a Dutch journalist, who encourages her writing. When it seems likely that there might be a marriage arranged for her very soon, Kartini musters the courage to ask for more freedom and an education more similar to that which her brothers received. This story is based on the real life Raden Adjeng Kartini who is credited with changing the way that women and girls were treated in Indonesia.
Readers who enjoyed Kadarusman's modern day Music for Tigers or Girl of the Southern Sea will find this look into late 19th century women's history fascinating. My grandmother was born in the US 1893, and didn't get to vote until she was 27, but things were so much different for women of a higher social status in Indonesia. Not being allowed to leave the house or see anyone outside of the family without special permission? Modern readers will be astonished. I loved that Kartini wanted to practice her Dutch, write to her friend, and investigate so many aspects of life outside the walls of her otherwise privileged existence.
Much of this book is in an epistolographic format, but the publisher was smart enough to realize that few people read cursive these days, so both Kartini and Lesty's letters are in different print fonts.
The details of both the weather and environment in Java and the details of daily life are stunning. At the end of the book, there are picture of Kartini and her family, and more information about the Dutch colonization of Indonesia that will probably be new information to most readers.
I love to read about every day life in other time periods and other places in the world, and Seabird will be perfect for readers who enjoyed Saeed's Amal Unbound, Venkatraman's A Bridge Home, or Huang's Singing Yellow Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China.
In 1892, Kartini is attending a Dutch school in Jepara, Java, in the then Dutch East Indies. When she turns 12, however, Mother, her father's second wife, requires that she leaves school and begin a period of isolation that is intended to make her a more desirable wife. She must also learn to act like a lady and turn her attention to embroidery and other quiet pursuits. Kartini misses her best friend, Lesty, who has returned to Amsterdam after her father's position in Java is finished. Kartini's mother, Ma, has been relegated to a smaller home because she was not "Raden Ayu" like Mother, and so lost her position in the household. Kartini would much rather study, and is jealous that her brothers are sent to boarding school and then to high education in the Netherlands, and doesn't understand why she can't have the same experience. She does get permission from her father to correspond with Lesty, so finds out that women in other parts of the world have more opportunities than she is allowed. She also talks to two of the maids her age in the household, Yanti and Uka, and helps them solve a mystery involving an invitation from the South Sea Starling to travel the world with her importing business. Kartini's father is impressed with her writing, and allows her to meet a Dutch journalist, who encourages her writing. When it seems likely that there might be a marriage arranged for her very soon, Kartini musters the courage to ask for more freedom and an education more similar to that which her brothers received. This story is based on the real life Raden Adjeng Kartini who is credited with changing the way that women and girls were treated in Indonesia.
Readers who enjoyed Kadarusman's modern day Music for Tigers or Girl of the Southern Sea will find this look into late 19th century women's history fascinating. My grandmother was born in the US 1893, and didn't get to vote until she was 27, but things were so much different for women of a higher social status in Indonesia. Not being allowed to leave the house or see anyone outside of the family without special permission? Modern readers will be astonished. I loved that Kartini wanted to practice her Dutch, write to her friend, and investigate so many aspects of life outside the walls of her otherwise privileged existence.
Much of this book is in an epistolographic format, but the publisher was smart enough to realize that few people read cursive these days, so both Kartini and Lesty's letters are in different print fonts.
The details of both the weather and environment in Java and the details of daily life are stunning. At the end of the book, there are picture of Kartini and her family, and more information about the Dutch colonization of Indonesia that will probably be new information to most readers.
I love to read about every day life in other time periods and other places in the world, and Seabird will be perfect for readers who enjoyed Saeed's Amal Unbound, Venkatraman's A Bridge Home, or Huang's Singing Yellow Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China.
January 8, 2026
Kartini is the oldest daughter in a noble 19th-century Javanese family; her father is the Regent of Jepara, but the government is still under Dutch control. They live in a large compound that includes a separate home for Kartini’s mother and youngest siblings, as well as the home that Kartini lives in with her father, stepmother, older brothers, and younger sisters, Rukmini and Kardinah. Until now, Father has allowed the free-spirited Kartini to attend a Dutch school, where she has thrived. She is fluent in three languages, and a gifted writer, but now at the age of 12 she must follow the Javanese tradition of pingit, which means home confinement until the time of her marriage.
Kartini chafes at the nature of her new life, enforced by her stepmother, which makes her feel like a caged bird. She resents practicing manners and decorum, envies her brothers and sisters who are still attending school, and sorely misses her good friend Lesty who has returned home to Amsterdam. Through letters exchanged with Lesty, and later her brother Kartono (who has gone to Holland as well), readers gain insight into Kartini’s quiet rebellion as she mulls ways to convince her father to allow her to continue her studies and marry by choice. As the years pass, her sisters join her in pingit, and Kartini becomes more determined than ever to upend the gender roles and expectations of their culture, even as she starts to recognize that the influence of Dutch colonizers is not as benevolent as she once thought.
Inspired by the real-life Kartini, a feminist icon in Java who is now celebrated with an Indonesian national holiday, Seabird is a lovely and unique story that will both educate and surprise its audience. Rich in detail and vocabulary, the first person narration (interspersed with the letters) allows readers to fully immerse themselves in Kartini’s world; some might be taken aback by some of the details of her home life, including the confinement of pingit and the roles of mother and stepmother, but also recognize the mocking of one older brother and the kindness of the other, the bonds among sisters, and the value of a good confidant. Kartini must contend with many different social structures as she navigates her changing world: the strong and loving ties within her large blended family, the traditions of her Javanese heritage, and the modern sensibilities that are seeping in via the Dutch. A subplot involving her attempt to help two sisters who are servants in the household opens both Kartini’s and Lesty’s eyes to the history of slavery and servitude in the colony, and Kartini is as strong an advocate for the Javanese people as a whole as she is for the country’s girls. Michelle Kadarusman appends helpful and informative backmatter, including a glossary, biographical details about Kartini, a historical summary, and author’s note about her inspiration for writing the book. Link to complete review: https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/2...
Kartini chafes at the nature of her new life, enforced by her stepmother, which makes her feel like a caged bird. She resents practicing manners and decorum, envies her brothers and sisters who are still attending school, and sorely misses her good friend Lesty who has returned home to Amsterdam. Through letters exchanged with Lesty, and later her brother Kartono (who has gone to Holland as well), readers gain insight into Kartini’s quiet rebellion as she mulls ways to convince her father to allow her to continue her studies and marry by choice. As the years pass, her sisters join her in pingit, and Kartini becomes more determined than ever to upend the gender roles and expectations of their culture, even as she starts to recognize that the influence of Dutch colonizers is not as benevolent as she once thought.
Inspired by the real-life Kartini, a feminist icon in Java who is now celebrated with an Indonesian national holiday, Seabird is a lovely and unique story that will both educate and surprise its audience. Rich in detail and vocabulary, the first person narration (interspersed with the letters) allows readers to fully immerse themselves in Kartini’s world; some might be taken aback by some of the details of her home life, including the confinement of pingit and the roles of mother and stepmother, but also recognize the mocking of one older brother and the kindness of the other, the bonds among sisters, and the value of a good confidant. Kartini must contend with many different social structures as she navigates her changing world: the strong and loving ties within her large blended family, the traditions of her Javanese heritage, and the modern sensibilities that are seeping in via the Dutch. A subplot involving her attempt to help two sisters who are servants in the household opens both Kartini’s and Lesty’s eyes to the history of slavery and servitude in the colony, and Kartini is as strong an advocate for the Javanese people as a whole as she is for the country’s girls. Michelle Kadarusman appends helpful and informative backmatter, including a glossary, biographical details about Kartini, a historical summary, and author’s note about her inspiration for writing the book. Link to complete review: https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/2...
August 23, 2025
The imagined true story of Kartini, a pioneering feminist from Java in the 1890s, brings to life the voice of a young woman determined to challenge restrictive traditions while under Dutch colonial rule. Kadarusman blends real historical details with middle grade fiction to illuminate Kartini’s struggle against both gendered powerlessness and the inequities of colonization.
Through lyrical descriptions of setting, readers are transported to a culture rarely explored in Western children’s literature. The novel’s epistolary exchanges between Kartini and her Dutch friend Lesty add intimacy and depth, while also highlighting the subtle but pervasive inequalities between colonizers and the Javanese people. Kadarusman captures the urgency of Kartini’s vision for women’s education and independence, offering a moving glimpse into the bravery of one revolutionary girl.
Verdict: This is a must-read for students. It offers an accessible entry point into discussions of colonization, patriarchy, and global history, while inspiring young readers with Kartini’s courage and conviction. Highly recommended for school and home libraries alike.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
Through lyrical descriptions of setting, readers are transported to a culture rarely explored in Western children’s literature. The novel’s epistolary exchanges between Kartini and her Dutch friend Lesty add intimacy and depth, while also highlighting the subtle but pervasive inequalities between colonizers and the Javanese people. Kadarusman captures the urgency of Kartini’s vision for women’s education and independence, offering a moving glimpse into the bravery of one revolutionary girl.
Verdict: This is a must-read for students. It offers an accessible entry point into discussions of colonization, patriarchy, and global history, while inspiring young readers with Kartini’s courage and conviction. Highly recommended for school and home libraries alike.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
August 9, 2025
The fictionalized story of a young Javanese girl who advocated for girls to be educated in the late-1800s. Once again, a middle grade novel opened my eyes to history and culture in another country. I was quickly caught up in the story itself and forgot that Kartini was a real person. Although based on research, Kadarusman makes it clear in her back matter that this is fiction, her imaginings of what might have led Kartini to take the stance she did. I look forward to recommending this to both young readers as well as adults.
Review based on a DRC received through NetGalley.
Review based on a DRC received through NetGalley.
September 18, 2025
A moving and beautifully written middle-grade novel, reminding us that courage can create ripples that matter. Seabird draws on historical fact but is told with vivid empathy and imaginative detail, engaging readers with a story of friendship, self-expression, and justice, while also doing a brilliant job of presenting the sensitive topics and nuances of colonialism and gender equality in an easy to understand way. An inspiring read that will resonate with young readers and adults alike.
November 15, 2025
Another beautifully crafted book by Michelle Kadarusman. The characters and setttings are lush and vivid. There's a lot for today's readers to take away from this book. It might be rooted in history but the tale of fighting for your dreams in the face of oppression is as relevant today as it ever was.
December 26, 2025
Royal Diaries are back, baby
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews