Kestrel Takes Flight
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- Précommander
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- Sortie prévue le 26 mai 2026
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- 10,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
A girl learns to stand up for herself and embrace the true meaning of home against the backdrop of the Montana wilderness in this heartfelt novel in verse by acclaimed author Joy McCullough.
A kestrel
is the smallest
bird of prey
in North America.
Kestrel doesn’t feel much like the fierce bird for which she is named. Not after being rushed away from her grandfather’s strict church community to the wilds of Montana. Her mother has gotten a job at a conservation institute, where she’ll work with a special breed of dog to help make interactions between humans and bears safer.
At first, Kes is terrified of the dogs and angry at her mother for ripping her from the only world she’s known. But with some distance from her grandfather, she starts to understand how badly his bark hurt. In this new terrain, can Kestrel discover a safe place to spread her wings and soar?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McCullough (Code Red) chronicles one tween's reckoning with religious faith and overcoming fear in this empowering verse novel. Eleven-year-old Kestrel Sinclair feels like she's being kidnapped when her mother whisks her away from their San Diego home to Bozeman, Mont., without letting Kestrel say goodbye to her grandfather. Moving into a cozy guesthouse at the Rocky Mountain Bear Institute, Kestrel—who's terrified of dogs—finds herself surrounded by them due to her mother's new job caring for the institute's pack of Karelians, which are trained to track down bears and keep them away from humans. Even as Kestrel yearns for her grandfather, though, she gradually realizes that, because he controlled every aspect of her life—including her attending their Catholic church's private school and participating in daily worship activities—Kestrel doesn't feel like she has her own identity. As she learns harsh truths about her and her mother's past and confronts her family's belief system ("Grandpa is always right/ and anyone who questions him/ is questioning God"), Kestrel channels the ferocity of her namesake, a bird of prey, to face her fears. Accessible text portrays the protagonist's shift from frightened nervousness to steadfast self-confidence, resulting in a deeply introspective offering. An author's note concludes. The Sinclairs are white. Ages 10–up.
