Ostrich Girl opens up with a bird call. ‘CHA-KE-KE-A-KE-KE-AAAAAA….’ echoes through the pages of this irregular narrative. Biswas tries to look at worldly issues through the lens of children. What Ostrich Girl deals with is the ask of the century; the question that environmentalists have seldom answers to. Integral to children’s literature, the author provides ample agency to the characters of her narrative.
Ritu is a young girl and belongs to a group of children called ‘the Secret Songsters’. This group mimics bird calls due to the disappearance of native birds from their locality, Henry Island. The birds of the island have been poached due to their increasing demand in the city, dwindling their population. When tourists come to this land, they come for birds and the locals have no birds to show them.