Photo by Mike Brothers
One Book, One Sullivan middle school students Ivan Moxley and Callie Standerfer look over pivotal passages in 2020 OBO read “Wild Bird” by Wendelin Van Draanen.

•March 11, 2020•
One Book, One Sullivan community discussion of Wild Bird is 6:00 p.m. Thursday, March 12 at the Sullivan First United Methodist Church.
Wild Bird takes readers on 14 year old Wren Clemmens’ journey at wilderness therapy camp in Utah.
A troubled Wren had gone off the rails when the family moved and her attempts to find friends at a new school landed her into a life of drugs and anger at the world.
Middle School OBO committee members Callie Standerfer and Ivan Moxley promoted different community reads this year, but both appreciate the issues faced by trying to gain acceptance.
“In Wild Bird, Wren learned that people could change,” Standefer said of the hope contained in a story that began with her getting involved with the wrong people which led to drugs and an uncontrollable spin.
OBO coordinator Rikki Ray, noted as a parent, she was concerned that Wren’s involvement in drugs had kept her from getting back.
At 3:47 a.m. one morning Wren was whisked away to wilderness therapy camp in Utah by strangers, her parents last resort to hopefully bringing their middle child back.
Moxley was an advocate for the Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, where a girl with no arms meets challenges of coping.
“I liked the mystery in Insignificant Events in the Life of the Cactus,” Moxley began, but pointed out he started appreciation Wild Bird when Wren was trying to set up her makeshift tent the first night in wilderness camp.
“That is when things started getting real,” he continued.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.