An out-of-work logger amazes his family by caring for a rare spotted owl chick in this informative, agenda-laden story. Forbidden to log public lands in the spotted owl's Pacific Coast territory, the loggers around the Trinity National Forest have fallen on hard times. When Borden Watson brings home a starving baby owl, his angry father Leon wants to wring its neck at first, but holds off, thinking it might belong to a more common species. Soon Leon is feeding it chopped mice, getting up at 1 a.m. to cuddle and watch TV with it, and even giving it flying lessons. George displays her usual profound knowledge of animal behavior, but allows her characters to stop at the drop of a hat to lecture one another on environmental issues or rehearse arguments for and against logging. Solidly in the conservationist camp, George (Everglades, p. 557, etc.) gives Leon some points; he asserts that destructive timbering practices actually conformed to government regulations in the past, and shows himself to be no ignorant villain, but a caring, knowledgeable forester. The book is edifying, if not particularly engrossing; David Klass's California Blue (1994) is aimed at older readers, but wraps similar themes in a stronger story. (Fiction. 9-12)
