A soulful and visually stunning exploration of faith in poetic form.
A wise, winged creature shares a series of spiritual meditations.
In this illustrated debut collection of rhyming vignettes, a mystical bird, Red-Tail Hawk, visits people from all walks of life to encourage them, reassure them, and remind them of God’s grace, love, and forgiveness. A messenger of the basic tenets of faith, the hawk plants seeds of peace in people’s minds, gently nudges them back to the present, and promotes prayer: “Red-Tail Hawk soars the skies, / Sharing the secret that your spirit flies. / ‘Trust your inner source,’ is his call. / ‘It will pick you up when you trip and fall.’ ” The hawk showers readers with insights on a wide variety of subjects, from a mystical shaman disturbed by a violent society to a single mother worried about her children’s welfare and an old man who regrets that he lived a life of “greed and desire.” The hawk teaches that beauty is temporary; an attitude of gratitude is the key to contentment; and one should seek God rather than material things or professional measures of success. All experiences are a lesson, the hawk advises, and readers should learn from them rather than wallow. The final edict of the hawk is: “The future is illusion; the past is just dreams. Stay here in the present. Life is better than it seems.” While Tawadi’s simple vignettes are moving, the real magic of this book lies in the images by debut illustrators Lucine and Redbone. The full-page pictures capture both people and landscapes in bold blues, golden yellows, rusty reds, verdant greens, and inky blacks with tactile details. On the surface, this volume appears to be appropriate for children, especially given its colorful visual form and straightforward storytelling. But its themes of suffering and death (even suicide, in the case of a hopeless veteran whom the hawk discourages from ending his own life) might be too morbid for young audiences. The work’s teachings are also somewhat elementary for adults who have been exposed to a religious or spiritual education.
A soulful and visually stunning exploration of faith in poetic form.Pub Date: May 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-8002-7
Page Count: 35
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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