Our missing hearts

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives with his father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library, and they try to keep their heads down and avoid outside attention. When libraries are forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic, including the work of Bird's mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old, Bird tries to ignore it completely. But when he receives a cryptic drawing, he finds himself embarking on an adventure to find her. He soon learns more about the reasons behind his mother's disappearance, but his journey also opens his eyes to the reality of the world around him.