Hawk, I'm Your Brother
Mar. 12th, 2011 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
booksofafeatherShort review: A short picture book with beautiful words, that managed to amaze me by being very powerful. It directly speaks to the experience of people who want to fly. The ending may be disappointing or delightful depending on how you look at it... but it's very worth reading, even though it is a short book.
Writing: This book has a beautiful poetry... it's simple enough that children can understand it, but very lovely. There's just one issue with the writing at the end, but otherwise, it's really good.
From a winged person's perspective...: This book directly talks about someone who longs to fly and feels that birds are their kin (which is the reason for the title). It captures the desire for flight and the nature of such a person very well... in a heart-aching way that other books miss. I think that most winged people will feel that the dream of this book speaks to them, at least in the beginning. Whether you feel that the ending is magical, or is denying of the things said earlier in the book, is up to your perspective.
Trigger warnings: A hawk is tied up and kept in a cage.
More thoughts...: One interesting thing about this book... the author is named Byrd Baylor... what a fitting name. I wonder if this book describes the author too... and if the name has to do with that... or if it's just coincidence.
Also, since this is a short book, the review will entirely spoil the story... there's nothing else I can do but discuss how this book goes. But it's an interesting book to discuss the full story of. So this will be more a "discussion of this book" than a review of this book I think... well... it's hard to draw the line anyway I suppose.... ^^
This book is the story of a boy whose greatest dream is to fly... the only wish he's ever had as the book puts it. Even more than that, he wants to be a hawk. It's very clear that he doesn't just want it because it sounds fun or cool as in some other stories... from his earliest words, he always talked about flying, and birds, and believed that he would fly. In that way, it's very similar to Julie Gonzalez' book Wings... which is always a good start. Even within the short space of its text, the book goes into loving descriptions of the boy's dream to fly that I think most winged people would find inspiring.
He feels the hawks are his brothers... but he doesn't understand why he can't fly like them. So he decides that he will catch a hawk, even though it may seem cruel, and raise it as his brother. That way, he can learn how to fly. But the hawk isn't happy being trapped in a cage or on a string... and eventually the boy decides, "One of us might as well fly". So he lets the bird go... and the bird calls to him as his brother.
What happens next, in the ending, is uncertain... you can look at it in two ways. One is that, feeling that the hawk accepts him as his brother, the boy imagines flying with him, and doesn't need his dream of flying to be "real" any more. That's the worse interpretation... the other one is that he achieves some special power through the hawk to experience his flight. This seems to be the explanation the book wants, because the people around the boy are described as wise and seeing the magic that changed him, and I can prefer that much more... in that way, it's a beautiful story of a society that accepts magic and looks at things with wisdom, and a boy who learns to experience flight in a magical way by being selfless. My only problem with it is that it's not very clear and it's easy to see as dismissing the boy's only dream, which he had cherished so much, just because he got to imagine it. So, that part could have been stronger. It's down to whether you take the book literally or not really.
So, that's a little weakness in the ending. The other part that some people may struggle with is how a boy who believes the hawk is his brother could do that to him. That point is even mentioned in the book... it doesn't entirely give a reason but just says that you have to forgive him. The feeling is that knowing how desperate he was, you would have compassion for the boy. Even though I could never deprive someone else of flight to fly myself, I think this is a good message of forgiveness and also shows how deep his feeling truly is for flight. He's not a cruel person... but his need is so powerful and that is shown by him capturing the hawk.
Anyway, I fully recommend this book! I'd give it four and a half, bearing in mind that it is just a short book, more like a poem, and judging it by that standard, not compared to longer books. It's sad that this is a library book, because I'd love to keep it.
Writing: This book has a beautiful poetry... it's simple enough that children can understand it, but very lovely. There's just one issue with the writing at the end, but otherwise, it's really good.
From a winged person's perspective...: This book directly talks about someone who longs to fly and feels that birds are their kin (which is the reason for the title). It captures the desire for flight and the nature of such a person very well... in a heart-aching way that other books miss. I think that most winged people will feel that the dream of this book speaks to them, at least in the beginning. Whether you feel that the ending is magical, or is denying of the things said earlier in the book, is up to your perspective.
Trigger warnings: A hawk is tied up and kept in a cage.
More thoughts...: One interesting thing about this book... the author is named Byrd Baylor... what a fitting name. I wonder if this book describes the author too... and if the name has to do with that... or if it's just coincidence.
Also, since this is a short book, the review will entirely spoil the story... there's nothing else I can do but discuss how this book goes. But it's an interesting book to discuss the full story of. So this will be more a "discussion of this book" than a review of this book I think... well... it's hard to draw the line anyway I suppose.... ^^
This book is the story of a boy whose greatest dream is to fly... the only wish he's ever had as the book puts it. Even more than that, he wants to be a hawk. It's very clear that he doesn't just want it because it sounds fun or cool as in some other stories... from his earliest words, he always talked about flying, and birds, and believed that he would fly. In that way, it's very similar to Julie Gonzalez' book Wings... which is always a good start. Even within the short space of its text, the book goes into loving descriptions of the boy's dream to fly that I think most winged people would find inspiring.
He feels the hawks are his brothers... but he doesn't understand why he can't fly like them. So he decides that he will catch a hawk, even though it may seem cruel, and raise it as his brother. That way, he can learn how to fly. But the hawk isn't happy being trapped in a cage or on a string... and eventually the boy decides, "One of us might as well fly". So he lets the bird go... and the bird calls to him as his brother.
What happens next, in the ending, is uncertain... you can look at it in two ways. One is that, feeling that the hawk accepts him as his brother, the boy imagines flying with him, and doesn't need his dream of flying to be "real" any more. That's the worse interpretation... the other one is that he achieves some special power through the hawk to experience his flight. This seems to be the explanation the book wants, because the people around the boy are described as wise and seeing the magic that changed him, and I can prefer that much more... in that way, it's a beautiful story of a society that accepts magic and looks at things with wisdom, and a boy who learns to experience flight in a magical way by being selfless. My only problem with it is that it's not very clear and it's easy to see as dismissing the boy's only dream, which he had cherished so much, just because he got to imagine it. So, that part could have been stronger. It's down to whether you take the book literally or not really.
So, that's a little weakness in the ending. The other part that some people may struggle with is how a boy who believes the hawk is his brother could do that to him. That point is even mentioned in the book... it doesn't entirely give a reason but just says that you have to forgive him. The feeling is that knowing how desperate he was, you would have compassion for the boy. Even though I could never deprive someone else of flight to fly myself, I think this is a good message of forgiveness and also shows how deep his feeling truly is for flight. He's not a cruel person... but his need is so powerful and that is shown by him capturing the hawk.
Anyway, I fully recommend this book! I'd give it four and a half, bearing in mind that it is just a short book, more like a poem, and judging it by that standard, not compared to longer books. It's sad that this is a library book, because I'd love to keep it.
