Summer of the Cooper's Hawk

Summer of the Cooper's Hawk

Middle Grade Wildlife Adventure

Written and Illustrated by L. L. Christenson

Cover: Lisa Loucks-Christenson

Foreign Rights, Book Club Rights Available. 

A poignant story about a girl struggling to accept the love of her new stepmother. When she discovers a mother hawk raising her young alone–the hawk shows the girl the distance a mother will travel to feed, defend and raise her young: up, into, and beyond . . . their flight.

Cover Blurb (subject to change on publication)

When nine-year-old Mandy finds a fox holding a dead Cooper's Hawk, she sets off into the woods to find out if their babies were killed too.  Over the next weeks Mandy returns to their nest site, and observes the mother hawks' courage while tending her young––alone. When Mandy's dad is injured in a car accident she begins to understand how difficult it is for her new stepmother to take care of her and her little brother, and how she is like the mother hawk taking care of her young ones.

When it's time for the hawks to fledge Mandy notices how they stall at jumping off into the unknown. She tries convince them their mom is on a higher branch, watching, from above. Can their jump teach Mandy how to believe in the unseen step off their nest, and trust they'll be able to fly to their mothers' encouraging calls? 

Can the young Cooper's Hawksy teach Mandy through their jump––that the love of her new stepmother––will not stop reaching out no matter her distance or height? Can she believe in her heart, her stepmother will, like the mother Cooper's Hawk, be there for her any time she calls or falls?

©2017-2022 Lisa Loucks-Christenson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED