Hawk, I'm Your Brother

by Byrd Baylor, Peter Parnall (Illustrator)

A Caldecott Honor Book
An Ala Notable Book

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Poetry, Nature, Animals, Birds, Middle Grade

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Byrd Baylor has always lived in the Southwest, mainly in Southern Arizona near the Mexican border. She is at home with the southwestern desert cliffs and mesas, rocks and open skies. She is comforted by desert storms. The Tohono O’odham people, previously known as the Papagos, are her neighbors and close friends. She has focused many of her writings on the region’s landscape, peoples, and values. Through her books of rhythmic prose poetry, written primarily for children, she celebrates the beauty of nature and her own feelings of rapport with it.
Byrd has written many books for children.

Her books have been honored with many prestigious children’s book awards, including the Caldecott Award and the Texas Bluebonnet Award. All of her books are full of the places and the peoples that she knows. She thinks of these books as her own kind of private love songs to the place she calls home.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve become such a fan of Byrd Baylor’s art. Fantastic! This is a poem with minimal black and white sketches to tell a story about a love for flying. Rudy loves the sky and birds and from the time he can speak he asked everyone when he got to learn to fly. He longed for the sky.

One day, he stole a baby hawk from a nest and raised the hawk. It longed for the sky too. After the summer, he freed the bird and he had a connection with it then and he got to fly through the bird.

It’s a lovely story, really. It’s about native people’s and it looks like a desert area of the southwest. There are always different ways of doing something.

The niece thought this was a lovely story. She loved some of the language. She also thought the boy was brave and kind. She gave this 4 stars. The nephew thought having a hawk would be really cool too. He enjoyed the story also. He gave this 3 stars.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, because we all keep our siblings in cages.

It's kind of unusual for a Byrd Baylor book in that there's actually a storyline. It's a prose poem about a boy who really wants to fly, so he captures a baby hawk and raises it in a cage for a season. The hawk clearly wants out the whole time, and then he sets the hawk free at the end.

It really doesn't need to be a Native American story. It kind of makes me think a little bit of "My Side of the Mountain", except apparently this kid fails at raising a hawk. The hawk in this book is magical or something and can survive on its own after being raised by a human, as well as having some kind of seemingly supernatural connection to the child at the end. Baylor's text just goes on and on, using far more words than necessary to tell this story. It's not bad, it's just boring.

Message: Don't kidnap wild animals, I guess?

For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com

[Ms. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 The ending was happier than I expected; I read this thinking something was going to happen to the hawk or Rudy. I was worried for both of them. A short read, I couldn't stop turning the pages of this novel in verse that won a 1977 Caldecott Honor for its illustrations. IMO, a Newbery Honor for the story would have been the better choice.

[SamZ · Rating 2 out of 5]

1977 Caldecott Honor: favorite illustration - when the hawk is finally able to fly from the cliffs of the Santos Mountain.
This is the third of Baylor's poetry books about Native Americans to be honored for a Caldecott medal. This one is different, in that it tells the story of a young boy who wants to learn to fly. In his quest to become a brother to the hawk, he steals a nestling to raise as his own. Eventually, the boy learns that the hawk must fly free, but the bond they share remains.
I wasn't as big a fan of this story as I have been of Baylor's previous poetry books. I was a little troubled by the disregard for nature that the young Indian boy had, as well as the lack of repercussion for stealing the baby hawk. I kept wondering where his parents were that they let him keep the wild animal in a cage and on a leash.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok. I thought it had an awkward feel to it for the majority of the story due to the fact that the little boy captures a hawk and illegally keeps it as his pet. The illustrations were all black and white sketches and many of them felt a little creepy to me. I'm glad the little boy finally released the hawk though and found a peace and happiness with his biggest dream: to actually fly like a bird.

Caldecott Honor 1977

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure how I feel about this book. Clearly, Rudy should not have captured the hawk...but he is young and has good intentions and he does let it go when he comes to understand that it will never be happy in captivity. It is beautiful and sad and hopeful all mixed in together. But it leaves me feeling a bit unsettled.

[Friend of Pixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Logan liked it, but not as much as I did. It's about a boy who wishes he could fly, who thinks of the hawk as his brother. He captures a young hawk and eventually realizes that the hawk cannot be happy as a pet. The illustrations aren't very inspiring. I can think of many illustrators who would have captured Logan's fancy more. Byrd Baylor has a gift for conveying the intensity of a child's longings. In Amigo (my favorite of hers), she conveyed it with humor. Here, she conveys it differently:
-----------
People here say
that the day he was born
he looked at the sky
and lifted his hands
toward birds
and seemed to smile
at Santos Mountain...

And later on
they say that
every day
he asked his father,
"When do I learn to fly?"

(He was too young then
to know
he'd never get his wish.)...

In those days
he thought that
somebody
would give him
the answer.
He asked everybody...

everybody.

And they always said,
"People don't fly."

"Never?"

"Never."

But Rudy Soto
told them this:
"Some people do.
Maybe we just don't know
those people.
Maybe they live
far away from here."

And when he met new people
he would
look at them
carefully.

"Can you fly?"

They'd only laugh
and shake their heads.

Finally he learned
to stop
asking.

-----------

But that doesn't stop him from believing that it's possible. This is a story of a dreamer and I think it would appeal to dreamers.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating: 3.5

Baylor introduces us to a boy with a passion, but it's not a realistic passion and he deceives himself into believing that he just might be closer to his dream if he had a hawk of his own, a hawk he could call "brother." Of course, reality is different from a dream, and he realizes that he is being unfair to the hawk and releases it to the skies.

Does it bother me that he possessed a hawk? No, because I see this as an opportunity to talk about raptors, and all wild birds, as being protected by law, and to point out that Rudy's choice wasn't wise, it was actually selfish. But, I do appreciate that this boy was linked to the natural world, and his dreams were about a bird, not about a smart phone or some other technological gadget.

I always like Parnall's landscapes and wildlife images, but not the human faces (in this book anyway).

[Karl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a Caldecott honor book but quite frankly it was pretty boring as a prose poem. The art was average. I was expecting more.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poetry was really beautiful, but I did not like the art work. The art was too plain. I was disappointed because this same artist illustrated The Desert is Theirs and that art was exceptional. This is a good message about captivity. I liked how it honored the hawk.

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This heartfelt story is about a young Native American boy who longs for the ability to fly. He doesn't want to just fly like any bird, but a hawk that can glide smoother than any other bird in the word. The boy, Rudy, yearned so much to have a connection with birds that he decides to take a baby hawk from it's nest in the Santos Mountains. Rudy is so excited to have this hawk and he hopes they can be brothers. The birds lives in a nest that blocks him from flying high up in the sky. Despite all the fun that the hawk has with Rudy, his eyes still turn to the sky and hope that one day he can fly far away. Rudy decides that he can no longer see the hawk unhappy and he decides to let him go. He thinks that it might as well be one of them flying high. The boy returned the hawk to his home in the Santos Mountains. After several tries to catch the wind, he finally soars high towards the sun. As the hawk leaves, he calls to Rudy and Rudy calls back as his brother. Rudy feels as if he is flying too.

This great multicultural book about Native Americans would be a great read for students to learn about other cultures and their values and heritage. The illustrations were exceptionally simple and to the point that were black and white. They made you feel more connected to Rudy and the bird and their adventures of flying high. Even though they were simple, they did get the concept of the page across to readers. These simple drawings allowed the readers to focus more on what was being said through the dialogue, which was crucial to the story.

[Katelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The picture book, Hawk, I'm Your Brother, by Byrd Baylor was an interesting depiction of a boy named, Rudy Soto. Rudy Soto has always had the dream of flying. He steals a hawk from Santos Mountain thinking that if he becomes this birds brother he too will be able to learn how to fly. Rudy soon finds out that this is not possible, but he learns many things about himself when deciding to free his red- tail hawk. I liked the illustrations by Peter Parnall; he uses sketch- like drawings to depict the close relationship Rudy has with nature, or in this case the Santos Mountains. To no surprise this picture book is geared towards older readers, due to its more complex vocabulary and story line. I liked how the author used figurative language throughout the picture book. For example, he uses the following simile, "he'd be more like a hawk gliding smoother than anything else in the world." It was also interesting how Rudy would try to feel like a bird, a sense of freedom and peace with nature. I liked how at the end of the book, the people of the Santos Mountains understood that Rudy found peace at not flying, because he was able to feel it through his bird. They knew he had a connection and way with nature, which I found very cool. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this picture book for older readers, because it challenges readers to really think about the story being told.

[Cheyenne Gribbins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rudy Soto is a young boy who loves flying. He longs to fly as the hawks he sees in the mountains. Rudy captures a baby hawk from the top of the mountains and takes it as his own. He keeps the hawk in a cage with a string tied around it so he does not escape from him. Rudy knows the hawk is unhappy, but waits until the end of summer to release him. As the hawk is learning to fly, Rudy feels as if he is learning too. He also has gained a brother. Rudy feels he has a special knowledge of flying because of his connection with the bird. The cover of this book pictures a close up of a hawk with a little boy climbing mountains. This leads me to believe the book will be about a boy who loves birds. There is no picture on the inside pages. All the illustrations are black and white, but the detail of the drawings make them beautiful. The pictures spread among both pages and accurately portray the size of the mountains, along with the emotion in Rudy and the hawk. One page in particular I liked was when Rudy was watching the hawk fly for the first time. Both pages are used to show how far the hawk flew and how happy Rudy was watching him on the mountain. This is a good choice for older readers because of the text length and the idea of flying; I'm sure all kids have wanted to fly at some point.

[Rachel White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rudy Soto, the young boy in the story, has always wanted to fly. It is all he ever thinks about. One day, Rudy finds a baby hawk sitting by itself in a nest and decides to take it and raise it himself. He takes the hawk home and nurtures it into a strong adult hawk. However, to keep the hawk from flying away, he ties a string to the hawk and hold the string tight. However, even though the hawk loves being with Rudy, he yearns to fly and soar with the other hawks like him. Rudy decides then one day that the hawks happiness is just as important as his own even if it means the hawk will be able to fly and he will not. So Rudy lets the hawk go and the hawk soars off into the sky.
I would recommend this book for about the ages of to fourth grades. There is quite a bit of reading and a younger crowd would have trouble keeping up with the story and staying focused. This story has a good moral too, so older students would be able to understand it and take something from it better than younger students.
The story won the Caldecott Award, which says enough in itself about the illustrations. The illustrations are simply drawn but yet have as much meaning within them as the story itself does. The pictures are so elegant and mature yet still at a level for readers to enjoy them too.

[Whitney Deaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for older readers. It introduces a clear theme while using some figurative language. The children have to really think about what the book is trying to teach. The story is about a boy, Rudy Soto, who wants to be a hawk. He wants to learn how to fly, and believes that humans do know how to fly, but they just aren't telling him. He then steals and captures a hawk to try to learn how to fly. By the end of the book he learns that its not write to keep a hawk, and sets it free. This book introduces children to another culture. It also talks about a situation that will not happen in real life. Humans cannot talk to birds. However, it will teach the children reading it the importance of freedom, and to not take things that do not belong to you. The sentence structures are easy, but have some unstructured breaks between them to establish importance. The illustrations are light, and go along with the story being told by the author. They are hand drawn and filled with lots of details. I recommend this book to children 3rd-5th grade.

[Taylor Rench · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Baylor's book, A young Native American boys wants to fly. He asks everyone in his town if they know how to fly, but they all laugh at him, so he stops asking. When he is up on the side of Santos Mountain, he steals a baby hawk from it's nest and keeps it as his own. Rudy thinks that the hawk will share some of his magic and they will both be able to fly. After seeing that the hawk is not happy living with Rudy and tied to a string, unable to fly in the sky, Rudy takes the hawk back to Santos Mountain and sets the bird free. As the bird flies away, he calls back to Rudy, who returns the hawk's call. Afterwards, everyone can see that Rudy's eyes reflect those of a young hawks and hears him return his hawk's call into the sky. Parnall does a great job of illustrating the book with pencil, and giving great detail to the hawk's feathers and the mountain side. I would recommend this book to children ages 11 to 13.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 1 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book bored me, and the story was weird. Was it about believing in your dreams? Or about protecting wildlife? Or about setting free what we love? I can imagine kids having a hard time connecting with a book like this. I really didn’t like it, and it took a lot for me to actually get through to the ending.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caldecott Honor picture book. A bit more words than typical. Boy feels affinity for birds so steals a young hawk out of nest. It could have ended up much worse, and probably should have. Text more like poetry but still typical. Relatively simple but beautiful art.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Caldecott Honor Book
An Ala Notable Book

[Marc Blunk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picture book for older readers, Caldecott Recipient.
Hawk, I'm Your Brother, written by Byrd Baylor and illustrated by Peter Parnall.

The bright yellow cover for me, represented the sun in the sky. Black and white illustrations of a hawk and a boy are also on the cover. If I made any change, I would remove the yellow on the cover and add instead, the colors of an evening sunset or sunrise. Yellows, orange, pink and blue pastels smudged would have also been beautifully effective cover. The illustrations through out the book, keep the same black and white theme. The pages look like coloring book pages because of the absence of color. I think perhaps the illustrator may have intentionally chose b & w because the book is the story of a Native American boy name Rudy. "Rudy Soto dreams of flying" (Baylor).

The story reads quick and easily in poetic descriptions. The text is aligned to the left, and is not written in a sentence structure or paragraph style; reading left to right. Instead, the text reads downward in two columns. I feel this breaks the monotony of seeing daunting paragraphs and struggling older readers can feel more confident in reading the passages.

Rudy steals a hawk from a nest and keeps it in a cage. Rudy takes the hawk outside and ties it to his shoulder, as if it were a pet dog. Rudy has an obvious connection to nature as a Native American, and feels an attachment or kinship to his winged companion. With his vast understanding of birds, flight and winds, Soto teaches his bird to fly and frees it. In this passage, it is almost as if he soars with the hawk.

I enjoyed this book because of my Native American heritage. I can see this book appealing to animal and bird loves, lovers of aviation, and children needing to embrace their heritage. Lexile does not suggest a particular age category for this book, but the tale lends itself to a wide age range of readers, from children to teenagers. I feel the book can also be appreciated by adults.

[Alexis Oyarce Zura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Otro más de la colección "A la orilla del viento".
En esta ocasión el libro no me terminó de convencer, por sus ilustraciones simplistas y una historia poco memorable.
Rudi Soto es un niño perteneciente a una tribu americana que siempre ha estado obsesionado con volar como los halcones, al punto de convencerse que quiere ser como ellos. Por este motivo secuestra a un Halcón de su nido cuando este aún no aprende a volar, pensando en que si lo cría se convertirá en su hermano (en este punto debo reconocer que me sentí identificado, porque cuando chico yo era igual). Al halcón lo encierra en una jaula y las veces que lo saca para jugar, le amarra un cordel para que no pueda volar, pero como era de esperar, Rudi se da cuenta de la necesidad del Halcón por volar y recuerda que esto era lo que él había soñado siempre y ahora estaba impidiendo que el Halcón lograra ese objetivo. Así que se propone a liberarlo, pero el Halcón a primeras no puede, porque nunca antes había volado, pero una vez lo logra Rudi ve reflejado en él su sueño de volar. Desde entonces la gente de su tribu se da cuenta de que el Halcón llama a Rudi de la misma manera en que llama a sus hermanos halcones, notando una conexión especial estre los dos.
Una lectura piola para un domingo

[Brewer Tunstall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hawk, I'm Your Brother by Byrd Baylor; Illustrated by Peter Parnall.

The illustrations in this beautiful picture book bring the text to life. The story begins with a boy who believed one day he would fly. Rudy Soto would ask everyone to teach him to fly, but they would tell him humans can't fly. Everyday Rudy Soto would look up in the sky and admire the hawks. One day Rudy Soto climbed up a tall mountain and found a young hawk. The hawk keep calling to its brother from the cage. Rudy and the hawk would play together, but Rudy soon realized the hawks dream is to fly not attached to a string. Rudy Soto releases the hawk and as it is leaving the hawk calls to the boy. This shows that the boy and the hawk are brothers. The illustrations are simple, but describe the emotions of the characters. I recommend this book for middle school students.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very different from any that I've read. It portrays a Native American perspective and their value of animals, specifically a hawk in this story. This book is about a boy who has always wanted to fly and is very infatuated with the idea. One day, he steals a baby hawk from its nest and decides to raise it as his own. Over the course of raising this wild hawk, he decides in the end to let it be free. The young boy watches the hawk fly away and "flies" with him. It's a great spiritual, imaginative, and creative story. I love how this book encourages young reader to always dream no matter what. The illustrations are also very intriguing because they are simple black and white drawings which I think fits the mood perfectly.

[Rachel Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book because it gave such an imaginary feeling. Rudy had always wanted to fly, so he captured a hawk and then raised it to be released but called it his brother. Although there was some controversy when reading other reviews about how this book could encourage children to do dangerous things, I thought it was quite inspirational. I would introduce this book to older readers in the classroom when talking about animals and maybe even science. I will say, I found the illustrations sort of bland and thought another illustration could capture the feelings of the book a little better. I would read this to 5th or 6th grade students.

[Sophie Carrier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wonderful Caldecott Honor book is about a boy named Rudy who adopts a hawk. The story is written in poetic form. I love the message behind this story. The boy Rudy is so fascinated with the sky and flying, that he believes maybe he can do so if he adopts the hawk. After raising the hawk, Rudy lets him go in hopes he can feel the sensation of flying as well. The illustrations match well with the book because they are simple and do not take away from the poetry. This poetry book may seem complicated to grades younger than 4th, and therefore I recommend it for older readers.

[Linda Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple and compelling story of a young boy who dreams of flying like a hawk. The prose is simple but yet compelling, drawing young and
old alike. The impression of flying is captured by the prose reading vertically instead of across. Ingenious! The ink drawn illustrations add character and depth to the southwest setting giving the story authenticity. There is so much here to share and enjoy! My favorite line?

“Not far enough”.

That is the essence of the story. Superb storytelling! Simple and simply well done!

[Thomas Helean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was good in the way the author used descriptive language and the formatting was also interesting. I felt bad for the bird throughout the book being tied to Rudy by a string after being taken from his nest. I thought the book was interesting at the end how the people just seemed to somehow understand that Rudy was so close with the hawks and had a vast obsession with birds throughout the book. Wished I would have gotten more insight into Rudy's life.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book had great illustrations. I liked the story with the connection with the hawk and Rudy Soto. I think the idea of flying was intriguing. I do like the backstory about flying and his desire to feel flight. I liked the connection with dream, connecting a person to wildlife, and not bragging about a superpower. I am curious on why the hawk vs. other birds. Other than that, a nice story.

[Taylor Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Rudy and his urge to want to fly through the sky like a hawk. He captures a baby hawk and raises it through out the book, but the hawk is just wanting to fly the whole time (it is stuck in a cage. He fulfills his urge to fly through the hawk. It was a poem based text with black and white illustrations. Honestly, I enjoyed it at my age, but I'm not completely sure how some readers would like it at as an older child. Great story, though!

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

1977 Caldecott Honor winner. I wasn't as moved by the black and white illustrations, though I found the landscapes and the details on the hawk beautiful. The text, on the other hand, was what makes this book shine. This is verse done well, and by the end I wasn't even focusing on the illustrations because I found the text so engaging.