Where the Great Hawk Flies

January 1, 2006
Gr 6-8 -During the British-inspired, murderous Indian raid in Vermont in 1780, a hawk led 13-year-old Daniel Tucker, his Pequot mother, and his sister to the safety of a cave while his English-immigrant father fought with the local militia. The Coombs family, now back from refuge in Connecticut, lost nearly everything. Young Hiram Coombs and Daniel immediately dislike one another for Hiram is haunted by the sights and sounds of the raid. He steals from Daniel, and both boys resort to name-calling. Their fathers attempt cordiality, but Hiram's pregnant mother is disdainful of Daniel's mother, even though she is the only midwife in the area. With the arrival of Hiram's uncle (crazed from the treatment he endured as a captive of Canadian Indians) and Daniel's Pequot grandfather (a healer whose tribe has befriended Americans), each family is hurled toward danger. Interspersed with the customs and language of two cultures and narrated in turn by each boy, the story never bogs down. The dignity, tolerance, and humor Daniel's grandfather displays is uplifting, and the way he passes on to his grandchildren valuable insights into their heritage and future is touching. Most evocative is the lyrical and reconciliatory ending. This story demonstrates how prejudice can injure both individuals and nations. Readers will enjoy the well-motivated characters and the exciting plot. Jerrie Oughton's "Music from a Place Called Half Moon" (Houghton, 1995), set in a more recent time, has similar themes." -Cindy Darling Codell, formerly at Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2005
Gr. 4-7. Although intermarriages between white settlers and Indians were relatively common in America's early days, the half-Indian, half-white colonial experience has rarely been explored for young readers. Inspired by an incident recorded by her own mixed-race ancestors, Ketchum tackles the theme in prose as sturdy and well crafted as a cedar-frame wigwam or hand-pegged pine barn. Seven years after Caughnawaga Indians fighting for the British ransacked his Vermont settlement, 13-year-old Daniel receives a visit from his Pequot grandfather, who wants to pass along the old ways that are "sliding away, like currents slipping down the river." The old medicine man's presence aggravates still-raw fears among Daniel's new neighbors, 11-year-old Hiram Coombs and his family, who suffered particular hardships in the earlier raid. Ketchum tells the story of a community rift stemming from post-trauma anxieties, nimbly moving back and forth between Daniel's and Hiram's sharply differentiated points of view. Aspects of Ketchum's portrayal, particularly the faintly romanticized aura surrounding Daniel's Pequot heritage, seem too clearly intended to cast the Coombs' attitudes in a negative light, but in the end Ketchum's close study of individuals and their complicated relationships return the broader message to a human scale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)