Wild Wings

Starred review from March 14, 2011
The worlds of two villages in Scotland and the Gambia intersect through modern technology and the determined efforts of children to save an injured osprey. When 11-year-old Iona moves in with her elderly grandfather, who is considered a "nutter," most children ostracize her. But an unlikely friendship develops between Iona and her classmate Callum after she shares her discovery of an osprey nest on his farm. Knowing ospreys are endangered, they keep Iris's existence secret
until a fishing line entangles her, forcing them to seek help. A naturalist saves Iris and tags her, allowing the children to track her flight from Scotland to Africa online. In her first novel, picture book author Lewis (The Most Precious Thing) deftly explores painful divisions within friendships and communities, which lead to broken relationships and unexpected tragedies, as well as surprising connections made across barriers of culture and distance when one person's passion inspires acts of generosity, kindness, friendship, and hope. Callum narrates most of the story, though several short chapters share Iris's perspective in this unsentimental and powerfully moving tale. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8â12.

March 1, 2011
Striving to protect the osprey nesting on his family's farm in Scotland, 11-year-old Callum McGregor watches the bird throughout summer, uses a computer to follow her migration to Africa and sets in motion a remarkable chain of events. This rich, moving tale begins with a shared secret: It was classmate Fiona McNair who found the nest. When the bird is snagged in fishing line high in her pine, the circle expands to include Callum's sheep-farming family and a ranger from a nearby preserve. When she migrates, Callum and friends Rob and Euan track her through the transmitter she carries on her back. When her signal disappears in a Gambian mangrove forest, 10-year-old Jeneba, hospitalized with broken legs, mobilizes the fishermen of her village and a visiting American doctor to rescue and rehabilitate her. Eventually—and entirely naturally—the bird's story reaches around the world. The suspenseful story line is surrounded with precise details: the Scottish landscape, osprey behavior, the work of a sheepdog and the joy and pain of riding a trail bike. Short chapters, some with cliffhanging endings, will read aloud well. Callum's first-person narrative is occasionally paralleled by the osprey's own experience, as Callum imagines it. With universal themes of life and death, friendship and respect for the natural world, this is still quite particular, a powerfully memorable story of a boy's grief and determination to keep a promise. (Fiction. 9-13)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2011

Gr 4-6-A small, close-knit Scottish village becomes the backdrop for this dramatic story of animal rescue and the unlikely friendship of an 11-year-old boy and girl from different backgrounds, with the plot growing to involve people from two continents. Callum McGregor first encounters Iona McNair catching a fish from the swift river on his family's property with her bare hands. Curious about the girl's self-sufficiency and the "secret" she offers to share with him, he follows her to a platform of branches in a tall tree from which they can watch a male osprey building an aerie. They vow to keep the nest a secret. The female, named Iris by Iona, returns to lay her eggs, then becomes entangled in some fishing line, and the two young people must get help. A naturalist from the nearby preserve who treats the bird's injured foot and straps a satellite transmitter to her in order to follow her on her migratory journey to Africa and back. Then things begin to go wrong. Iona is suddenly gone, and when Iris's signal ceases as she journeys to her winter home, Callum must rely on a young girl in a hospital and a medical resident-both thousands of miles away-to help rescue the osprey. In the end, the village people work together to create a miracle of their own. Lewis offers sage advice on friendship and support. She shows that reaching out to others can bring life-changing results. This heartwarming and informative story, with its well-developed main characters, compares favorably with Carl Hiaasen's Hoot (Knopf, 2002) and Farley Mowat's Owls in the Family (Little, Brown, 1962) in offering an adventure that is hard to forget.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2011
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Though Callum first sees Iona as an intruder on his familys farmland, she reveals a secret that overcomes his reluctance to befriend her: shes discovered a rare osprey aerie. For months, they watch a pair of raptors and their chicks until its nearly time for the birds migration to Africa. Keeping his closeness with Iona as deep a secret as the endangered ospreys nest, Callum begins to draw away from his other friends at school. After a shocking event, he gradually learns not only that he needs them, but also that he can depend on them and the rest of his village community more than he knew. Set in contemporary Scotland, this engaging novel is built on a solid foundation of characters who respond realistically to people and experiences. Even the minor characters are well drawn and convincing, and the interplay of individuals from different generations is portrayed with unusual finesse. A strong ecological theme runs through the novel, as the characters together work to protect one of the ospreys, even tracking an electronically tagged birds journey to Africa and finding allies to rescue her when shes in danger. Full-page drawings, not seen in final form, will illustrate this vividly imagined and well-written novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)