This fantasy combines wizardry and magic with an absorbing animal-rescue story and should appeal to all fantasy lovers, but especially boys. Wat, a crippled boy, is an outcast in his village and retreats often to the forest, away from the cruel taunts of the villagers. There he witnesses the lord's handlers heartlessly kill a nesting pair of falcons so they can take the baby birds for their master. Wat, outraged, steals the nestlings and escapes into the heart of the forest, where he meets a mysterious old man. He is a mage-a wizard-who teaches him many things, among them how to care for the birds so that they may eventually fly free, and how to find some helpful magic-which is closer to him than he ever believed.
R. L. LaFevers (Robin Lorraine when she's in really big trouble) grew up surrounded by shelves of old dusty books, a passel of brothers, and a wide variety of pets, including a goat, chickens, chipmunks, a baby anteater, and, for a few short weeks, two bear cubs, who were very wild and untamed. She has also spent a large portion of her life being told she was making up things that weren't there, which only proves she was destined to write fiction. She is the author of eight books for young readers, including Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) which received starred reviews and was a Junior Library Guild selection, a Booksense Summer Pick, and nominated for the Malice Domestic's Agatha Award. Kirkus calls her most recent book, Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist: Flight of the Phoenix, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) ". . . an exciting tale." Look for the sequel, Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist: The Basilisk's Lair (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) in Spring of 2010.
R. L. lives in Southern California with her family and spends her time daydreaming, making up stories, and wallowing in old forgotten texts. Although she no longer has any exotic pets, she does have raccoons who visit her back porch, coyotes who howl at her window, and hawks that soar high overhead.
