Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Margaret K. McElderry (2000), Edition: 1st, 32 pages
Description
A farmer finds an eagle and raises it to behave like a chicken, until a friend helps the eagle learn to find its rightful place in the sky.
Local notes
School Library Journal, 02/29/2000
K-Gr 4-"A farmer went out one day to search for a lost calf-." He finds not the calf, however, but an orphaned eaglet. He takes it home, and having placed it among his hens and roosters, says to his family: "The eagle is the king of the birds-but we shall train it to be a chicken." As the eaglet grows, it begins to walk, talk, eat, and, according to the farmer, think like a chicken. When a friend remarks upon this eagle in the chicken yard, the farmer insists it's a chicken, and the friend sets out to prove him wrong. His first attempts fail as the bird ignores his plea of "Fly, eagle, fly!" Finally, before dawn one morning, the two friends carry the now heavy, full-grown eagle to the mountaintop where the farmer had first found it. Here, as the sun rises, the eagle finally takes off and soars, realizing its true destiny at last. Younger children will enjoy the book simply as a story; older readers can relate to the struggle to discover their true selves, and it is a most effective parable about the plight of the people of South Africa. An author's note attributes the original tale to the Ghanaian known as Aggrey of Africa. Daly's watercolor illustrations are outstanding, perhaps the artist's finest to date. They are a striking combination of soft blues and browns that bring the setting to life and add considerably to the book's distinction.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
K-Gr 4-"A farmer went out one day to search for a lost calf-." He finds not the calf, however, but an orphaned eaglet. He takes it home, and having placed it among his hens and roosters, says to his family: "The eagle is the king of the birds-but we shall train it to be a chicken." As the eaglet grows, it begins to walk, talk, eat, and, according to the farmer, think like a chicken. When a friend remarks upon this eagle in the chicken yard, the farmer insists it's a chicken, and the friend sets out to prove him wrong. His first attempts fail as the bird ignores his plea of "Fly, eagle, fly!" Finally, before dawn one morning, the two friends carry the now heavy, full-grown eagle to the mountaintop where the farmer had first found it. Here, as the sun rises, the eagle finally takes off and soars, realizing its true destiny at last. Younger children will enjoy the book simply as a story; older readers can relate to the struggle to discover their true selves, and it is a most effective parable about the plight of the people of South Africa. An author's note attributes the original tale to the Ghanaian known as Aggrey of Africa. Daly's watercolor illustrations are outstanding, perhaps the artist's finest to date. They are a striking combination of soft blues and browns that bring the setting to life and add considerably to the book's distinction.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Awards
South Carolina Book Awards (Nominee — Children's Book Award — 2003)