Avenging the Owl, by Melissa Hart (Sky Pony, 224 pp 2016, $15.99HB, grades 5-8, ages 11-13) Review by Skye Anderson
About Family and Everything Else!
You live the ideal life of a 13-year-old boy, surfing it up in California when, all of a sudden, to save your writer dad, your family moves to Oregon and lives frugally. The boy next door has Down Syndrome and is a pain in the you-know-what, your mom can't find a good-paying college teaching job, and your dad succumbs to depression.
To top it all off, an owl commits a "crime" and for revenge, you make a serious mistake and consequently have to spend summer days volunteering at a raptor (bird) sanctuary under bossy Minerva (whom we never really get to know) and know-it-all Lucas. You don't like birds and, as a matter of fact, are afraid of raptors.
Avenging the Owl is a book you will read faster and faster as the pages fly by about a dysfunctional family or two, and a myriad of facts about raptors woven in seamlessly so you don't realize how much you are learning amidst the backdrop of a move to the country, leaving friends behind. Only when a crisis occurs and turns out OK, does everyone value our protagonist, Solo Hahn (yes, it's a play on words - Hans Solo).
And yes, there is a slight foray into boyfriend-girlfriend at the end, helped along by our budding screenwriter and truant-turned-savior.
You will also want to read Wild Within by prolific author Melissa Hart, the true tale that started her love affair with raptors.
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| Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family |
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