A baby great horned owl, Second, so called because his sister, First, is already out of the nest, is reluctant to hunt for himself, but when his mother is injured he is forced out into the forest; Maureen is a human girl pulled out of her grandmother's violent home and placed with an aunt--but her Aunt Beatrice is involved in falconry and runs a mews where injured raptors can heal, and it is here Maureen and Second (now called Rufus) meet and learn how to heal each other. - (Baker & Taylor)
A poignant story told in alternating perspectives follows the experiences of an at-risk teen who forges a powerful bond with a rescued baby owl after moving to the home of her falconer aunt. By the author of the No Safety in Numbers trilogy. 30,000 first printing. Simultaneous eBook. - (Baker & Taylor)
"A perfect tale of outcasts, friendship, falconry, and the families we create.”--Tui T. Sutherland, New York Times bestselling author of the Wings of Fire series
In the vein of Barbara O’Connor’s Wish, a moving, poignant story told in alternating perspectives about a down-on-her-luck girl who rescues a baby owl, and how the two set each other free.
Great horned owl Rufus is eight months old and still can’t hunt. When his mother is hit by a car, he discovers just how dangerous the forest can be.
Reenie has given up on adults and learned how to care for herself—a good thing, since she’s sent to live with an aunt she’s never met. Yet this aunt has a wonderful secret: she’s a falconer who agrees to help Reenie catch an injured passage hawk in the wild and rehabilitate it.
When Reenie traps bedraggled Rufus, his eyes lock onto her heart, and they form a powerful friendship. But can Rufus learn to trust in the outside world and fly free? And can Reenie open her heart enough to truly soar? - (HARPERCOLL)
In this moving story that New York Times best-selling author Tui T. Sutherland calls "a perfect tale of outcasts, friendship, falconry, and the families we create," a down-on-her-luck girl rescues a baby owl, and the two set each other free.
- (
Houghton)
"A perfect tale of outcasts, friendship, falconry, and the families we create.'--Tui T. Sutherland, New York Times bestselling author of the Wings of Fire series
In the vein of Barbara O'Connor's Wish, a moving, poignant story told in alternating perspectives about a down-on-her-luck girl who rescues a baby owl, and how the two set each other free.
Great horned owl Rufus is eight months old and still can't hunt. When his mother is hit by a car, he discovers just how dangerous the forest can be.
Reenie has given up on adults and learned how to care for herself'a good thing, since she's sent to live with an aunt she's never met. Yet this aunt has a wonderful secret: she's a falconer who agrees to help Reenie catch an injured passage hawk in the wild and rehabilitate it.
When Reenie traps bedraggled Rufus, his eyes lock onto her heart, and they form a powerful friendship. But can Rufus learn to trust in the outside world and fly free? And can Reenie open her heart enough to truly soar?
- (
Houghton)
In this moving story that New York Times best-selling author Tui T. Sutherland calls "a perfect tale of outcasts, friendship, falconry, and the families we create," a down-on-her-luck girl rescues a baby owl, and the two set each other free.
- (
Houghton)
"A perfect tale of outcasts, friendship, falconry, and the families we create.”--Tui T. Sutherland, New York Times bestselling author of the Wings of Fire series
In the vein of Barbara O’Connor’s Wish, a moving, poignant story told in alternating perspectives about a down-on-her-luck girl who rescues a baby owl, and how the two set each other free.
Great horned owl Rufus is eight months old and still can’t hunt. When his mother is hit by a car, he discovers just how dangerous the forest can be.
Reenie has given up on adults and learned how to care for herself—a good thing, since she’s sent to live with an aunt she’s never met. Yet this aunt has a wonderful secret: she’s a falconer who agrees to help Reenie catch an injured passage hawk in the wild and rehabilitate it.
When Reenie traps bedraggled Rufus, his eyes lock onto her heart, and they form a powerful friendship. But can Rufus learn to trust in the outside world and fly free? And can Reenie open her heart enough to truly soar?
- (
Houghton)
Dayna Lorentz is the author of the Dogs of the Drowned City trilogy and the No Safety in Numbers trilogy. She has worked in and around the foster care system, most recently as a law clerk in the Vermont family courts, but she only just started exploring the sport of falconry. Dayna lives in Vermont with her husband and two children.
- (
Houghton)
Dayna Lorentz is the author of the Dogs of the Drowned City trilogy and the No Safety in Numbers trilogy. She has worked in and around the foster care system, most recently as a law clerk in the Vermont family courts, but she only just started exploring the sport of falconry. Dayna lives in Vermont with her husband and two children.
- (
Houghton)
Booklist Reviews
After Maureen's mom is once again admitted to the hospital for mental-health reasons, Reenie is left in the care of a relative she's never met, her great-aunt Beatrice. Reenie, though resilient, is exhausted and skeptical of the prospect, but Beatrice has a marvelous secret: she's an experienced falconer, and her red-tailed hawk ("not a pet . . . a partner") lives in the mews out back. Throwing herself into the world of falconry, Reenie discovers another young creature without a mother or real home: Rufus, the self-proclaimed "absolute worst great horned owl ever," injured, alone, and hopelessly trapped in a snare. Together, the unlikely pair begin to heal and hope, navigating unfamiliar worlds and learning to trust. Rufus and Reenie split narration duties from chapter to chapter, and it's often funny; Rufus has a delightfully distinct voice and a bewildered way of sorting out human behavior. A tender tale that reminds readers that families come in all forms and that the greatest rewards come from opening oneself to all that life has to offer. Grades 4-7. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
A relationship between a young owl and a young girl helps them both confront their fears. Reenie is taken away from her grandmother's house by social services after a fight between her grandmother and her grandmother's boyfriend endangers her. Reenie has been through this before—when her mother's depression is bad enough, she has to be hospitalized, leaving Reenie at the mercy of social services. This time she is delivered to Beatrice, a great-aunt she has never met. Beatrice turns out to be a master falconer, and Reenie, despite her overall mistrust of adults, is intrigued. When a young, undernourished owl ends up in a hawk trap by mistake, Reenie convinces Beatrice to bring the owl, whom she names Rufus, back to the house. The story is narrated in alternating first-person chapters from the points of view of Rufus and Reenie, with both protagonists having distinctive, plausible voices. Even before he is caught in the trap, Rufus suffers from a debilitating lack of confidence, being second-hatched and therefore smaller and weaker, which he overcompensates for by (often amusing) deliberations and conjectures. Reenie's distrust of emotional closeness is deftly played with well-reasoned plot developments. Set in Vermont, the story is fleshed out by thought-provoking forays into the ethics of hunting and the powerlessness of children in determining their home lives. Reenie is in the sixth grade and reads as White. Unusual and poignant—full of the depth and contradictions of life. (author's note, bird facts, glossary) (Fiction. 8-11) Copyright Kirkus 2021 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
