Book Review: Soar - The Incredible Journey of Hendrix and Ryder (OT)(osprey migration, adventures and values)

Soar: The Incredible Journey of Hendrix and Ryder, by Letitia Burton (Southport Press, 212 pp, $14.99, 2022)

Possible DogEvals Book of the Year for 2022!

A new classic in the vein of Charlotte's Web, Soar will touch your heart, grab it hard and never let it go, whether you are big or little. 

The Story, Warm and Fuzzy, Yet Also Exciting

Author Letitia Burton explains that she uses poetic license in penning a better story than reality would dictate but she does so in an appendix, as she writes the real story of ospreys in the book when brother ospreys stay together through thick and thin on their way south (but in real life, they migrate one by one). Burton also is just a tiny bit creative with the spider's lifestyle even though parasites often travel on ospreys like our spider-hero does.

The book opens with young osprey brothers still in the nest as their parents get ready to migrate south for the winter alone - before the youngsters even learn to fly on their own. Ryder is assertive and flies sooner than his brother Hendrix, who bears the brunt of some bullying from other youngsters of the osprey kind. 

Gramps is also a major character throughout our story as he stays north late in the season to impart his wisdom to the younger set, preparing them and educating them to survive the trip south.

The Incredible Journey

We have a love interest and plenty of near misses - adventures and mishaps that the brothers and the spider-friend must overcome on the way south as they also reach a deeper understanding of family, and love, and brotherly support. And, yes, it is a tear-jerker, a keeper, with accidents and storms and a race, but also with beautiful word-scenes of flying and soaring on the wind. And the love of family.

Writing Style

The author has a lovely way of including us in the story in the guise of Hendrix with all his foibles. We learn that Gramps tells him everyone has a special gift, a superpower: that his brother is brave, but he, Hendrix, can learn to read the weather which is so necessary on flights.

What Would We Change?

We might prefer a cuter illustration of the ospreys to grab a reader's attention in the bookstore. And we are surprised Soar has not yet won any major writing awards. Hopefully that will change as we predict it will remain a new classic for a long time to come.