Hawk Mother

Hawk Mother

Juvenile nonfiction
The cover of a picture book literally stopped me in my shelf
reading tracks. It showed an adult red-tailed hawk sharing a nest
with two perfectly calm baby chickens. That's not exactly what you
expect to see unless large quantities of avian drugs are involved. I
mean in nature a raptor would consider the chicks (who wouldn't want
to be in the same area code, never mind the same nest) fast food...
...So what the heck was going on?
Kara Hagedorn's Hawk Mother turned out to be a very unusual love
story. Sunshine, the hawk, was shot, rendered unable to fly, hunt, or
protect herself. She was taken to a wildlife center. Hagedorn, who
works there, adopted her and took her home.
One spring Sunshine built a nest and layed two eggs which she
tended to. Sadly, since she'd had no close encounters of the male of
the species kind, the eggs were infertile. She tried year after year
after year.
One year Hagedorn obtained two fertilized chicken eggs to
replace the infertile ones. Sunshine didn't seem to notice. But what
would happen when the imposters were born?
Read the book and see.
On a personal note, we had some fun at work. The lights flickered and
went out and a glass fronted fridge started flashing and making
buzzing sounds. All the diners got out of there as fast as their feet
would carry them. Some of the other workers and I started
coconstructing (while we were working) a scary story involving angry
spirits finding a way up to the surface of the earth due to
construction. I was using a flat, raspy voice to say lines like
"They're here.", "The veil has been rent between the living and the
dead", and "I see dead people." People were playing along like
saying. "Are the spirits angry, Jules? I bet they're very angry."
People like stories. Adults can play.
A great big shout out goes out to adults whose imaginations haven't
been euthanized.
jules hathaway


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