The Truth About Hawks

October 1, 2019
Hawks star in this sixth episode of Eaton's The Truth About Your Favorite Animals series. The author uses familiar North American species to illustrate hawks' hunting behavior, family life, migration, and threats. Text on the page gives the facts while the various hawks, a brown-skinned bird-watcher, a threatened vole, and a sky-gliding Dall sheep provide commentary. As in previous books, there are also signpostlike text boxes with further facts along the way. The author has a knack for picking facts his young readers will enjoy: "Baby hawks often go to the bathroom over the edge of the nest instead of in it." But they will also come away knowing the more general characteristics of the hawk family--the excellent vision, hooked beak, strong, sharp-taloned toes, large wings, and special tail feathers that make them such deadly hunters--and much more. Although the illustrations are cartoons, and sometimes wildly out of proportion (a fox taller than the human child), the hawk species are both actually recognizable and usually labeled on the page. It should be easy for readers to distinguish fact from exaggeration, and the humor may make the science stick. The backmatter includes illustrations of wingspans, air movements that help them fly, migratory routes, and suggestions, both easy and challenging, for further reading. Cartoon humor and solid information make an appealing introduction to an impressive bird family. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

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October 25, 2019

Gr 1-2-This book about hawks is bold, confident, and straightforward. It features simple facts and clear, bright drawings on each page. The birds speak in cartoon bubbles and offer humorous commentary. This animal dialogue invites readers to empathize with the creatures and enter their world. Goofy comic images like a hawk on the phone add an air of hilarity but do not undercut the realistic pen-and-ink drawings that differentiate between species and illustrate details. Subplots having to do with voles and snails-who are prey-add drama and provide extended examples of the relationship between predators and prey. The author does mention threats to the survival of hawks, but instead of focusing on dire environmental conditions, he emphasizes appreciation for hawks in the wild. The book offers a very short bibliography (two titles) for further research. VERDICT With this fourth installment in a series of fanciful nonfiction books about animals in the wild, Eaton is shaping up to be a go-to source for amazing facts about nature.-Sheri Reda, Wilmette Public Library, IL

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2020
These additions to Eaton's informational picture book series (The Truth About Elephants, rev. 1/19; and others) are characteristically odd, exuberant, and instructive. Straightforward content is presented through expository text in a large, bold typeface. Lively cartoons offer additional details--and plenty of jokes. While human children are shown actively learning about the titular creatures, the butterflies and hawks (among other animals) talk with one another and react to the facts, often with wit. After the child in Butterflies declares those to be her "favorite things with wings," for example, a bird sarcastically and disappointedly remarks, "Wow. Okay." Pen-and-ink illustrations, colored digitally with strong black outlines and solid color fills, threaten to overwhelm each spread, but sidebars, word balloons, labels, and other visual elements function as effective organizers. Brief back matter adds further context about wingspans, migratory routes, and more.

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)