Little Bird - Bright Raven Press
Bright Raven | Fiction
A poignant story of a boy who learns to see his sister — and a family learning to listen — told with music, horses, and a talking cat.
Little Bird will be available to buy in July 2026. In the meantime, sign up to my mailing list below to be notified and get your free copy of the Little Bird pantoum.
Little Bird
About The Book
For Jake, everything is about Olivia
Little Bird is told through the eyes of twelve-year-old Jake — the invisible sibling — as his fourteen-year-old sister Olivia spirals into crisis and a medical system that can't quite hear her.
Doctors call it anorexia. But to Olivia, the problem isn't food. It's a world that's too loud, too bright, and filled with static that no one else can hear.
Set in Cambridge, and driven by the rhythm of a remarkable playlist, Little Bird asks what it means to truly listen — and what it costs when we don't.
Music As Mood
Every chapter comes with its own music track — a playlist that deepens the story as you read. Jake's world, scored.
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The emotional toll on a child living in the shadow of a sibling's chronic illness — rarely seen, rarely spoken about.
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A look at how the world feels to someone whose frequency is tuned differently — and how little the world accommodates that.
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A family caught between a rigid school system and a medical world that prioritises diagnoses over the person inside.
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The quiet, powerful connection that remains when everything else falls apart.
A Gift For You
The Pantoum That Started It All
He watches the disintegration of his family -
The invisible boy, hidden in the wall.
He hears her secret confessions of shame;
The doctors say she's ill, send her away.
The invisible boy, hidden in the wall;
He talks to his cat, for peace, for calm.
The doctors say she's ill, send her away.
His cat says: 'dad's definitely losing it'
…
She’s not ill, just different.
Written as a companion piece to the novel, this pantoum captures the voice of Jake — cycling, repeating, spiralling — in the form that mirrors his experience of family life.
Download the complete poem, beautifully typeset, free. Join the mailing list and be the first to hear about events, readings, and new writing.
“Our emotions are connected to our senses – very much so. If you are happy or sad, you can display it by a stim.”
Emma Dalmayne
Meet Your Author
Claire Buttrum
Author, Coach, and Therapist
“For much of my life, I’ve existed in fragments. As a neurodivergent, hypermobile woman, my journey has been peppered with the specific, heavy shame that comes when your way of being doesn't align with the world's expectations.”
Claire is a therapeutic coach based in St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Her therapeutic work with families and her own lived experience navigating neurodivergence, disordered eating, and mental health is the living foundation of Little Bird.
Little Bird is published under her own imprint, Bright Raven.
She is available for readings, Q&As, and events at bookshops and schools across Cambridgeshire and East Anglia.