3.5 stars
When I was given the opportunity to read this book I had great expectations. The book's subject was fascinating, but I found the narrative, not to my taste in some places. At times, it was written as more of a list than descriptive prose. I also hope the published book has photos of the birds described because I spent a lot of time looking up the avian subjects observed on the internet, which detracted from the flow of the text.

Mya-Rose Craig is a young environmentalist with a great future ahead of her. She has overcome many difficulties and challenges in her life so far, which she describes, with compassion in her text and I applaud her for her tenacity and empathy.

This book has a lot going for it and as a first work is laudable. I am sure Mya-Rose Craig has a great future and her voice will grow into a force within the environmental movement.

It was OK. Wasn't really sure what to expect and it was quite interesting, but I just found it all a bit dull.

Bit of a disappointment. The bird watching and travelling were interesting, if a bit sparse on scientific facts. The author’s desperate need to be seen as promoting diversity in the field read as virtue signalling. Not especially well written either.

There is no doubt about it: British-Bangladeshi Dr Mya-Rose Craig, D.Sc. h.c. is an amazing young woman. She was born in 2002 to birders Chris and Helena Craig in a Somerset village and attended Chew Valley School near Bristol. Now 20 years old she is studying Human, Social and Political Sciences at St John's College, Cambridge.
Her mother and father are both ardent birders and Mya-Rose was enchanted by their passion for bird spotting. The family used every possible opportunity to travel both in the UK and further afield, in pursuit of their passion. At the age of 11 Mya-Rose started her own bird blog and rose to fame as Birdgirl. Their holidays often included the hiring of a local guide especially when they travelled abroad. Their target birds were decided ahead of their travels, so by the age of 17, Mya has personally witnessed more than half of the world’s bird species and earned the accolade of becoming the youngest ever person to do so. When she was 13 years old she had also visited all 7 continents, giving her a fine understanding of conservation and the needs of indigenous peoples.
Not only an authority on birds, Mya-Rose Craig had seen first-hand global inequality and this encouraged her to become a race activist and an environmentalist, campaigning for equal access to nature, to stop climate change and biodiversity loss and ensure Global Climate stability. To me these facts show a maturity beyond her age and a certain confidence that we must act now before it is too late. She has met Chris Packham, Bill Oddie, Sir David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg through her campaigning. She believes each of us has a duty of care for our world and we must accept this responsibility so that in the future those who come after us can share the wonder of our beautiful world and look around us or up into the sky to marvel at the beauty of the natural world.
‘Birdgirl’ is an interesting and authoritative biography and follows a first foray into writing, a 64 page debut called ‘We Have a Dream’ published on 5th August 2021. I am interested in birds and enjoy finding birds that I have never seen before. I loved her comprehensive and lyrical descriptions of the new birds she saw in the seven different continents, birds I will never see myself. She was patient, driven and very talented. Hers was a labour of love and I shared her joy.
I received a copy of this biography through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher Vintage Digital in return for an honest review. Thank you most sincerely for my copy. I recommend it as an informative and lovely read for bird or nature lovers and those of us who want to find out more about our world and how we can help to save it.

A fascinating glimpse into the world of twitchers. I birdwatch but this is a completely different level of obsession. May-Rose is extremely privileged to have traveled to amazing countries to see exotic species but she appreciates her fortune and is determined to look after the natural world and is an ambassador for people of colour to enjoy nature to a much greater extent. A power-house of a young person, she also talks with great insight of her mother’s battle with mental health and the effects on all the family.