Bird of a Thousand Stories
by Kiyash Monsef
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. 340 pages.
Review written March 20, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
Bird of a Thousand Stories is a sequel to Once There Was, which was a Morris Award Honor Book in 2024, the year I was on the committee, so of course I was delighted to hear about a sequel. The Morris Award is for best young adult debut books, and this book is shelved in our library’s juvenile section, but it walks the line between both. Our protagonist, Marjan, is in high school and lives on her own after her father’s death, but the plot and situations fit well with middle grade novels. There’s not even any romance in this book, more of an adventurous chase around the world to find and free the Bird of a Thousand Stories.
You don’t have to have read the first book to enjoy this one, but my advice is not to miss it! I do think that the author’s craft is a bit better in this, his second novel. It feels more unified, as the main story is about the same quest throughout the book.
As with the first book, folk stories are woven through the book, and this time there’s a continuing story about the Bird of a Thousand Stories – the bird Marjan feels compelled to find. An Author’s Note shows us that he seriously researched this story to include it.
Filling in a little bit, in the first book, Marjan’s father died, and she discovered he had a business helping magical creatures – which were very real. Marjan discovered she’d inherited the gift of being able to communicate with them mind-to-mind with just a touch. However, she also gained the attention of a powerful family who made a business of selling off magical creatures for money. As this book begins, she has an uneasy alliance with them.
Also in the first book, Marjan acquired a roommate who’s a cheerful runaway and a witch – a witch who’s spells are hit-or-miss. In this book this friend has some kind of powerful spirit helping her – but is it really help? Something new in this book is that Marjan discovers an uncle who kept himself separate from the family is an heir to the same magic, but gave it up to trust it to her father. So Marjan isn’t alone in her quest, but there are questions throughout about trusting the right people to help and not trusting the wrong people. And who is which?
It all adds up to a magical adventure traveling to many different parts of the world, trying to do right by magical creatures.
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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