Ride the Wind

by Nicola Davies, Salvatore Rubbino (Illustrator)

Overview

A heartfelt story of a father and a son, of grief and reconnection—and an albatross who needs to find her way home.

Javier has a secret. On one of his father’s fishing trips, still hurting from the loss of his mother, he finds an albatross caught on the hooks—alive, if only barely. Against the orders of his father, who has been distant and disparaging, Javier smuggles the bird to safety and begins nursing it back to health. Every day the albatross accepts a little more food, but she shows no sign of wanting to use her wings. And if Javier's new friend refuses to fly, how will she ever find her way home? From award-winning author Nicola Davies, with dramatic watercolors by Salvatore Rubbino evoking the setting of Chiloé Archipelago, off the coast of Chile, comes a stirring tale of loss, loneliness, and the power of empathy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536212846
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	07/13/2021
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,087,277
Product dimensions:	11.44(w) x 9.69(h) x 0.41(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nicola Davies is a zoologist and award-winning author whose many books for children include Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature, illustrated by Mark Hearld; Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth, illustrated by Emily Sutton; and The Day War Came, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb. Nicola Davies lives in Wales.

Salvatore Rubbino is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including A Walk in New York, Just Ducks!, written by Nicola Davies, which was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal, and Our Very Own Dog, written by Amanda McCardie. He lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

A boy rescues an albatross after it is hooked by a fishing line. . . . The assured storytelling has a crispness that feels fresh and immediate, and the colorful illustrations echo this immediacy and confidence in their spontaneous-looking execution. . . . Taut and heartwarming.
—Kirkus Reviews

Nicola Davies sets a cathartic story of sorrow and love in coastal Chile in ‘Ride the Wind’. . . There’s wonderful dynamism in Salvatore Rubbino’s pictures here, with lashes of bright nautical color that whip across the pages as if blown by the breeze. The freshness of his illustration leavens an otherwise wrenching story of loss and reconciliation that—fair warning—may hit adults harder than it does their children.
—The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

2021-05-05
A boy rescues an albatross after it is hooked by a fishing line.

Javier is out at sea with his fisherman father, Tomas, and Uncle Felipe, helping with the fishing lines, when he sees an albatross has become hooked. Uncle Felipe unhooks the bird and throws it onto a corner of the boat, ignoring it. But Javier sneaks the still-alive bird into the boat’s hold and later, when they reach their home port, hides the bird in the storeroom behind the house. Caring for the bird with the help of neighbors, Javier hopes to have the bird healed by the time he goes back out to sea in two weeks. But he comes home one day to discover that his father, having found out about the bird, has sold it to a fairground manager. Javier’s already-tenuous relationship with his father since the death of his mother boils over. Javier finds the bird and runs off with her to the cliff’s edge, reckless of his own safety, as he is determined to convince the bird to fly away. The assured storytelling has a crispness that feels fresh and immediate, and the colorful illustrations echo this immediacy and confidence in their spontaneous-looking execution. All human characters are illustrated with beige skin and dark hair and eyes, and the honorifics (Señor, Señora, Señorita) probably indicate, due to albatross range, a South American setting.

Taut and heartwarming. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews