When Eagles Fall

by Mary Casanova

Overview

Things have not been easy for thirteen-year-old Alex lately. Recent events have taken their toll on her family, and when drinking at a party lands her in the hospital, things only get worse. Her mother decides to send her away to spend the summer working with her father, an esteemed eagle researcher, on the wild and remote shores of Rainy Lake in Minnesota. The bugs, the outhouse, the isolation—it’s a whole different world from her home in California.

The hardest part of Alex’s exile is dealing with her father who is sure that he knows it all. When he chooses not to save a pair of baby eagles whose nest is in peril, Alex sneaks off to help them anyway. Her rescue effort, however, goes wrong, and one of the eaglets falls out of the nest, breaking a wing. Alex is alone with the helpless eagle, stranded and completely exposed to the elements. Facing hunger, injury, and a bear, she quickly realizes that it will take resources she never knew she had just to keep herself and the bird alive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816692118
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	08/01/2014
Series:	Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	9 - 13 Years

About the Author

Mary Casanova is the author of more than thirty books, ranging from picture books to YA novels, including Frozen (Minnesota, 2012).

Table of Contents

1.	Captive	1
2.	Naatuck's Cabin	10
3.	On a Mission	18
4.	The Climb	28
5.	The Eaglet	36
6.	Wind and Water	44
7.	Alone	51
8.	Somewhere, Nowhere	58
9.	Stranded	65
10.	Beneath Dark Rafters	74
11.	Castaway	86
12.	Hunger	90
13.	To Catch a Fish	102
14.	Venturing Farther	108
15.	Skinny Dipping	114
16.	Night Falling Fast	123
17.	To Build a Fire	129
18.	Flames	135
19.	Special Cargo	141
	Author's Note	150

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-8 After a binge-drinking incident leaves her hospitalized, Alex is "banished" to the wilderness of Minnesota to help her father with his eagle research project. Determined to prove her usefulness, the 13-year-old decides to paddle to a remote island, remove a fishing lure from an eagle's nest, and band the eaglets. However, the rescue operation goes terribly wrong when her actions cause an eaglet to fall from the nest, breaking a wing. Alex quickly realizes that she must take the injured bird to the Ranger Station but rough weather strands her on a bat-infested island with little food and water. Casanova has written an eco-adventure story that also provides valuable information about eagle research; unfortunately, the survival story is hampered by a cloying secondary plot line that focuses on Alex and her inability to cope with the death of her younger brother, which slows the pace of the story. -Doris Losey, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library, Tampa, FL Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Thirteen-year-old Alexis has been "banished" (her word) by her mother, who lives in San Diego, to International Falls, Minnesota, where her father is the foremost authority on the bald eagle. He heads a small team who are banding eaglets and researching the eagles' habitat. Alexis is immediately involved and learns quickly, though it's difficult work and complicated further by the swarms of mosquitoes and hot weather. She resents her father's authority and the team's respect for him. In spite of this, she becomes fascinated with the birds and rashly decides to remove a fish lure from an eagle's nest situated on a nearby island. Though successful in climbing the tree, she lifts an eaglet out of the nest and drops it. Then she loses the paddle to the canoe and finds herself stranded on an island with an injured eaglet. For two days she struggles with a storm, a visiting bear, and hunger. She manages to feed the eaglet and herself through fashioning a crude fishing rod. She finds shelter: an abandoned house on the island obviously not used for years. Surprisingly, it is a bat refuge, full of bat dung, with hundreds of bats returning in the evening. Knowing the eaglet must have assistance, in desperation, she sets the house on fire and is rescued. Throughout these difficulties, she finally allows herself to think of her little brother, who has recently died from cancer. Working through her grief, she realizes her father's actions, which she so resented at the time, were a result of a grief as deep as her own. The ending is a bit pat, with the eagle flown to a healing center and her parents beginning to talk to each other. The tale moves along well and will be enjoyed particularly by readersof survivalist stories. The author's note describes her hands-on research with eagle experts and includes several Web sites where naturalists can learn more. (Fiction. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews