BRIGHT HUNTER OF THE SKIES

A beautiful book, poetic in concept and execution, this lifts the art of falconry to the eminence it held at the time of Frederick II (early 13th century). Frederick II was himself a falconer; his Castel de Monte in Southern Italy was dedicated to the training of men and horses, dogs and the birds themselves, and the minute details of each phase of this training opens a whole new world to readers of any age. Directed to the sub-teens, with its teen age boy who became one of the emperor's falconers as hero, the interest is focussed almost solely on every phase of falconry, rather than on the plot which is slight.