From School Library Journal
Grade 1–5—Winter documents the controversy surrounding New York City's famous red-tailed hawk. When Pale Male and his mate built a nest high on the side of a Fifth Avenue apartment building, they attracted the attention of local bird-watchers. The humans celebrated when baby hawks hatched, grew, and learned to fly. However, some residents complained about bird droppings and animal remains falling from the hawks' living space. In December 2004, the nest was removed, generating local protests and national media attention. Eventually, the nesting spot was restored. As Winter indicates in an author's note, Pale Male has fathered more than 20 chicks with a number of mates since 1993. Winter's illustrations subtly bring out the humor of the situation. While earthbound humans stare up at the birds, applaud the chicks' hatching, and wave signs to protest the nest's removal, the redtails carry on with their lives above the fray. Their inscrutable expressions vary little as they remain intent on hunting yet another mouse or small bird. Only the pink, heart-shaped clouds in the sky behind their courtship flight hint at possible avian emotion. The book should increase readers' awareness of these common predators in their surroundings, no matter where they live. Those who want to learn more facts about the species might consult Doug Wechsler's
Red-Tailed Hawks (Rosen, 2001). Barbara Bash introduces a number of other avian city dwellers in
Urban Roosts (Little, Brown, 1992).—
Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
A heartening story, this attractive picture book tells of a red-tailed hawk that makes a place for itself on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Working with acrylics on watercolor paper, Winter uses Easter-egg colors to frame her appealing cityscapes. She introduces the red-tailed hawk as a type before launching into a nicely abbreviated version of a story that may seem familiar to many adults: a hawk (this one nicknamed Pale Male) makes a nest on the pigeon spikes of an apartment building. The "apartment people," as Winter refers to them, remove the nest, but protestors rally in support of the hawk, and Pale Male is eventually able to rebuild. Winter blends the realistic with the fanciful throughout the story; there are purple and green apartment buildings as well as recognizable architectural elements of the Central Park skyline. But the book's high points, not surprisingly, are the renderings of Pale Male and his mate, hunting, soaring, gliding, and diving all over the park's vivid greenery.
Abby NolanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
