Hi. This is Spencer for Spencer Reads.
MultiMes got me a book for Christmas called Freeing Finch, Jo and I read it together, Jo’s a teenager in our System. It’s about a girl who was born in a boy’s body and her dad left and her mum dies, and her only friend is a lovely lady named Maddy. It is a sad and happy book, and all sorts of things happen, she makes friends with a lonely dog and finds a friend her own age, there are some mean people and some kind people. It was the best book to read.
I really wanted to read it here on Spencer Reads so Unpretending got really brave and she wrote to the lady who wrote Freeing Finch. Her name is Ginny Rorby, she has written other books that I want to read now. They’re called Hurt Go Happy, Dolphin Sky, Lost In The River Grass and the best sounding one of all, How To Speak Dolphin.
Anyway, Ginny Rorby gave us permission to read Freeing Finch on our Substack. So even though I haven’t finished reading Dot and the Kangaroo yet, I’m gunna start reading Freeing Finch, and I’m gunna start reading it right now, are you ready?
Buy here and read along. Ginny Rorby
Transcript of Chapter 1 transcript omitted.
Did you see that I didn’t say anything through the chapter? I’m not going to through the whole book, but I might say something at the end of the chapter.
Do you know what? I think Ginny Rorby is very clever, I think she writes really, really well, and I think she must be a lot like Maddy Baxter.
My mum, had chemo hair but that was when…, that was before she died of cancer. She wasn’t really my mum then, I was just in the looking out parts, she was a different lady then. But she ended up dying, and she had chemo hair too.
You know what? Unpretending and…, we been calling her “The Body’s Name” but she wants to be brave and say her name’s Sharon. So Unpretending and Sharon, sometimes they see a bird on the side of the road that’s been hit by a car. She always has to stop, it’s really sad though because she knows when she takes them to the vet, that the vet will put them down very gently, because that’s what they do. But at least that way they won’t suffer, but I like what Maddy did, but cars hit really hard. It’s really sad, there’s lots of birds that get hit by cars, and kangaroo’s they get hit by cars too.
It's really sad that their dad had left, and it’s really sad that her dad called her names, but the book gets better and I won’t read anymore (today), but I’m looking forward to putting this up.
It’s a pretend story, I know that, but there’s other people in this world who are born and their in a boys body or their in a girls body and they don’t feel like they are a girl or a boy. My name’s Spencer, I know where I got that name from and I don’t know if I’m a girl or a boy, I’m trying to learn about that. I’m in a girls body, but I don’t do girly things. Back when I was a kid, it was better if you’re a boy. Boys didn’t get into trouble, boys could do anything and they’d always get out of trouble.
I hear somebody cutting down a tree. We had a big storm a while back, lots of trees fell down and lots of branches, so it could be the government people going around and chopping up some of the trees that fell down. And then they put them into a truck that has a big giant mulcher in it and it turns it into woodchips, and then people use it for their um…, for their mulch on their garden. That’s pretty cool hey?
Anyway, I’m really thankful to Ginny Rorby for letting us read this book. I’ll probably put it out a lot more seeing, Unpretending doesn’t have to put the words on, that’s the thing that takes her the longest. But she says sometimes people might not understand us and it’s always good to have some words to read along if you don’t understand us, cause we’ve got a different accent to some people. And that she says that’s the kind thing to do.
Anyway, this has been Spencer for Spencer Reads. I hope you really like this story, it’s gonna be good. If you want you can buy it, and then you can read along as I read it. Some of us here in this body have what they call Dyslexia, and sometimes it’s hard to read some words, I’m learning so much better at reading, but Dot and the Kangaroo reading really hard words, this book is a lot better, less hard words.
Thank you for listening, and we’ll talk to you another day, bye.
Love the commentary, Spencer! Good job! 🐦⬛