Hawk Rising

★ “The lyrical text captures the excitement of observing red-tailed hawks’ hunting efforts in a residential setting. Floca’s stunningly accurate watercolor illustrations beautifully complement Gianferrari’s text. An incredible companion to the author’s Coyote Moon, this latest powerfully demonstrates the wonder that can be found in observing the natural world. … VERDICT: a first purchase for most libraries.” –School Library Journal

★ “The spare poetic prose of Gianferrari (Hello Goodbye Dog) joins the realistic watercolors of Floca (Princess Cora and the Crocodile) to present a day in the life of a red-tailed hawk. This captivating introduction to the red-tailed hawk concludes with more than a half-dozen facts about the common bird of prey and further reading.” –Publisher’s Weekly

“An absorbing reminder that we need never look far to see wild, beautiful nature.” –Kirkus

“Maria Gianferrari’s Hawk Rising, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Brian Floca, incorporates an effective second-person voice … to put readers right in the center of this story of a somewhat suburban flavor of wild … Gianferrari, often writing in bursts of concise, evocative sentences, marks the wonder that is the observant girl noticing the bird in the first place. … When the author draws a parallel at the book’s close between the humans and birds – ‘Through the night, safe in your nests, you and the hawk family sleep…’ readers will be left wondering about the other ways in which the creatures are alike.” –Kirkus “Going Wild”

“[Hawk Rising] has a more naturalistic tone, even as the awesomeness of the central bird of prey makes the book read intensely, in the manner of a ghost story, … The prose is not cute, but instead informative and painterly: ‘Black talons curving onto wood. Hooked beak, sharp as a knife. Head turning. Eyes searching. Chicks waiting.’ Gianferrari admirably doesn’t shy away from precise language … The hawk doesn’t just fly and attack, he rides the wind ‘like a wave, twisting and turning, kiting and floating.” – New York Times

“If the flight of a hawk is poetry in motion, then this book is too. Author Maria Gianferrari provides the poetry, and illustrator Brian Floca provides the hawk in motion.” –The Horn Book, “Calling Caldecott”

“Floca’s illustrations in a classic ink and watercolor style accompany Gianferrari’s sensory, poetic text, setting the suburban scene and offering a dynamic, naturalistic depiction of the fierce predator and its behavior. … Visually stunning and informative.” – The Horn Book

“As the sun rises, Father Hawk stretches his wings. At the same time, two children wake, stretching their arms and watching as the family of red-tailed hawks go about their day. … Back matter provides more information on the lifestyle and habitats of the ubiquitous red-tailed hawk, and the second-person narration adds a human element as the binocular-gripping siblings follow the hawk throughout his day. … A matter of fact examination in the life of a creature that may readers may find familiar.” – Booklist

“Gianferrari’s poetic text layers lyrical beauty onto a harsh story of survival, and Floca’s luminous scenes convey both honest objectivity—the terrified squirrel racing under the hawk’s shadow and then gripped in its claws—and genuine sensitivity in the parent hawks’ care for their chicks.” – Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books