Stride peeled back the leather on his wrist, proudly showing the pale untanned strip on his arm. My arm doesn't ache anymore.' 'Just like your old man, eh?' Stride grinned and ran his hand down Ferd's back, ruffling his feathers, just like his dad used to. After his dad dies in a fishing accident, Stride turns to Ferd, his dad's pet bird, for comfort. He's determined to make sure nothing in his life changes so dramatically ever again. But soon Ferd makes a new friend - a girl! - and Stride's mother makes unsettling plans, and suddenly everything safe and familiar in his world spirals dangerously out of control . . . This summer, Stride has to overcome more than just his grief for his father - he has to learn to let go, trust others and even put his own life at risk. And he has to find a way to accept that change isn't always a huge and terrible thing. A coming-of-age novel about a boy, a bird and a bond that even a bushfire can't break.