Our Missing Hearts

Bird Gardner (12) lives with his father, a former college professor who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to keep his head low and be very quiet when out in public, standing out is only asking for trouble. The prevailing thought in America is to preserve American culture, thereby arresting those who do not look like or act like the typical American, particularly people of Asian dissent.  The government has also started to clear out books from schools and libraries that glorify unpatriotic themes.  It’s been years since Bird saw his mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who wrote a series of poems that were eventually withdrawn from public and university libraries due to its content which focused on the injustices of society.  She is now in hiding trying to stay alive.  As Bird gets older and remembers his mother, he begins to miss her terribly and begins a quest to find her.  

Our Missing Hearts is a story that is relevant and too close to the realities of today. I was struck by the themes of racism, police brutality and Anti-Asian hate crimes that are easily found in the news today.

A must read for book clubs!