Overview
M. Taylor Armstrong-Brown. It's a good name for a journalist. When Taylor moves to the remote town of Hunter's Gap from Philadelphia, she copes by being an impartial observer. She plans on biding her time until she can escape to prep school and college. But, unexpectedly, Taylor finds herself rescuing an orphaned baby hawk and getting to know a boy she'd never imagined being friends with. When she meets the woman who runs the nearby raptor rehabilitation center, Taylor's journalistic reserve begins to break down. As the hawk heals and grows stronger, Taylor is drawn closer to the boy she'd considered a redneck - and to the passionate "Hawk Lady," whose many secrets awaken deeper emotions in Taylor than she understands. Words begin flowing from her pen, but they are not the objective notes of a news reporter. They are the stirrings of a heart taking wing.
When her rescue of a baby hawk takes fifteen-year-old Taylor to a raptor rehabilitation center in rural Pennsylvania, their offer of a summer public relations job seems a step toward her dream of becoming a journalist.
Synopsis
M. Taylor Armstrong-Brown. It's a good name for a journalist. When Taylor moves to the remote town of Hunter's Gap from Philadelphia, she copes by being an impartial observer. She plans on biding her time until she can escape to prep school and college. But, unexpectedly, Taylor finds herself rescuing an orphaned baby hawk and getting to know a boy she'd never imagined being friends with. When she meets the woman who runs the nearby raptor rehabilitation center, Taylor's journalistic reserve begins to break down. As the hawk heals and grows stronger, Taylor is drawn closer to the boy she'd considered a redneck - and to the passionate "Hawk Lady," whose many secrets awaken deeper emotions in Taylor than she understands. Words begin flowing from her pen, but they are not the objective notes of a news reporter. They are the stirrings of a heart taking wing.
KLIATT
To quote the KLIATT review of the hardcover, from March 1999: Taylor has just spent a difficult year in the Pennsylvania countryside, miserable in school and friendless. Her father is a sculptor working happily at the family farm, and her mother is unhappily trying to maintain her career in Philadelphia and coming to visit them when she is able. In the summer Taylor actually starts to make friends and she becomes involved in a project at a nearby raptor rehabilitation center. Some local people have only anger about the university project, resenting that their tax dollars are protecting hawks and other predators. The head of the project, Dr. Rhiannon Jeffries, is a stunning woman devoted to her cause but not adept at community relations. Taylor, fascinated by Rhiannon, jumps at the chance of a summer job doing public relations for the raptor center. Much of the plot is centered on the friction between Taylor's parents and their different priorities. Taylor's mother is a demanding, driven professional, and the father is a much less successful artist who is loving and expressive, but isn't very good at being responsible. His affair with Rhiannon, once discovered by Taylor, blows the family apart, and the resolution involves all of them. Readers will learn something about raptors and controversial environmental issues, about the dynamics of family life, and the demands of friendship. The story is emotional and involving, slightly exotic, and satisfying. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1999, Penguin, Puffin, 298p., $5.95. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Claire Rosser; September 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 5)
Editorials
Children's Literature
It was the summer that changed Taylor's life. Since her family's move to remote Hunter's Gap last fall, Taylor has spent one long and painful freshman year in the rural Pennsylvania town's high school. Now she must decide whether she should return to Philadelphia and go to boarding school or stay put in Hunter's Gap, her father's small "home town." Her choice was easy before the summer. But when Taylor rescues an injured hawk, she also connects with the class outcast, Rail, and Rhiannon, the "hawk lady" who runs the local raptor rescue center, and complications and conflicts arise. The premise of this novel is promising and Savage writes well. However, the main character¾while smart and sophisticated¾comes off as terribly condescending toward her stereotypical "backwoods" neighbors. Her superiority complex, coupled with frequent bouts of self-pity, make Taylor very easy for the reader to dislike. Similarly, Taylor's father (a sensitive, free-spirited, nurturing artist) and her mother (a hard-nosed, workaholic business woman) are stereotypical characters as well. While many of the themes and issues raised here will appeal to a teenager, and while Taylor does make a half-hearted attempt to see the real people behind the stereotypes, in the end, the story does not ring true. 2001, Puffin,— Dianne Ochiltree
KLIATT
To quote the KLIATT review of the hardcover, from March 1999: Taylor has just spent a difficult year in the Pennsylvania countryside, miserable in school and friendless. Her father is a sculptor working happily at the family farm, and her mother is unhappily trying to maintain her career in Philadelphia and coming to visit them when she is able. In the summer Taylor actually starts to make friends and she becomes involved in a project at a nearby raptor rehabilitation center. Some local people have only anger about the university project, resenting that their tax dollars are protecting hawks and other predators. The head of the project, Dr. Rhiannon Jeffries, is a stunning woman devoted to her cause but not adept at community relations. Taylor, fascinated by Rhiannon, jumps at the chance of a summer job doing public relations for the raptor center. Much of the plot is centered on the friction between Taylor's parents and their different priorities. Taylor's mother is a demanding, driven professional, and the father is a much less successful artist who is loving and expressive, but isn't very good at being responsible. His affair with Rhiannon, once discovered by Taylor, blows the family apart, and the resolution involves all of them. Readers will learn something about raptors and controversial environmental issues, about the dynamics of family life, and the demands of friendship. The story is emotional and involving, slightly exotic, and satisfying. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1999, Penguin, Puffin, 298p., $5.95. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Claire Rosser; September 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 5)VOYA -
Fifteen-year-old Melissa "Taylor" Armstrong-Brown is stuck in a small town with her sculptor father, far away from the city (and mother) she knows and loves. Surrounded by the endless fields and gas station luncheonettes of Hunter's Gap, Taylor dreams of a career in journalism. Her hopes are renewed by a chance encounter with an injured hawk and Dr. Rhiannon Jeffries, the isolated "Hawk Lady" biologist, who takes the inquisitive Taylor under her wing.As the summer before high school wears on, Taylor must decide if her education lies in the sleepy heartland of Hunter's Gap or at the elite Porter Phelps School in Philadelphia. Her once obvious decision to return to the city is complicated by the concerned, maternal figure of Rhiannon and a developing fondness for classmate Rail Bogart. Taylor is torn between the relentless demands of her overachieving mother and the desire to create a future for herself on her own terms.
Summer Hawk, in the tradition of Gary Paulsen's works, treats nature as a character to be acknowledged. However, the story line is plagued with unnecessary narrative and the ending is contrived and not completely believable given our knowledge of the characters. Nevertheless, readers will appreciate Taylor's frustration with her separated parents, her search for a purpose in life, and a desire to be understood. This long-winded yet ultimately fulfilling novel should find a home in the young adult and nature collections of any rural library.
VOYA Codes: 3Q 3P J (Readable without serious defects, Will appeal with pushing, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9).