The Windhover - Hardcover

Brown, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152011870 ISBN 13: 9780152011871

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1997

Synopsis

A lonely young boy must learn to put his trust in another child in an attempt to save the baby falcon he stole from its mother's nest in his schoolyard.

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Kindergarten-Grade 3?Bold pastel pictures drawn from various perspectives illustrate this story of a kestrel (known in Britain as a windhover) from its hatching to a harrowing capture by a lonely boy. Plucking the bird from its nest in a school nook, the proud child shows it around the playground. However, this only brings him entreaties to return the small falcon to its nest because it is clearly thin and starving. He puts it back, where it grows stronger until it can leave the nest on its own, and later the children cheer its first flight. While the story, told in first-person from the bird's point of view, begs believability, it does reinforce the joys of observing animals and the responsibility humans have to leave them where they find them.?Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the classic tradition of wildlife stories--from Born Free to Free Willy--a creature is plucked from the wild and caged, then eventually reintroduced to its natural habitat. A windhover chick narrates how it broke out of its shell in the family perch atop a schoolyard building. Two hands, belonging to a creature with ``no musty bird smell,'' grab the tiny bird and put it behind bars. The windhover recognizes the boy as a loner on the playground, Dan Foster. It grows thinner, until Dan is convinced by a classmate that the right thing to do is to set the bird free. Readers who have cared for wild creatures will recognize Dan's struggle with his conscience; it's no surprise that he is redeemed by his decision and makes a friend, too. In fact, the book unfolds like clockwork; by keeping to the bird's perspective, all emotion and urgency is washed from the tale. Birmingham illustrates the story in fuzzy, muted pastels that resemble Mark Graham's work; he zeroes in on the windhover in captivity and in flight in full-page portraits, and varies his compositions with close-ups of the children's faces and aerial shots from the windhover's-eye view. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152011870
• ISBN 13: 9780152011871
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Birmingham Christian
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32