Julie and the Eagles

American Girl: Julie #4

by Megan McDonald, Robert Hunt (Illustrator)

Julie and her best friend, Ivy, find a baby owl in Golden Gate Park--and it needs help. At a wildlife rescue center, Julie meets Shasta and Sierra, two bald eagles that will be caged for life unless money is raised to release them back into the wild. For Earth Day, Julie thinks of a unique way to tell the public of the eagles plight. The "Looking Back" section explores the beginning of the environmental movement.

This book is the fourth in a series of six historical books filled with inspiring lessons of compassion, courage, and friendship. Julie s entire book set includes: Meet Julie; Julie Tells Her Story; Happy New Year, Julie; Julie and the Eagles; Julie s Journey; and Changes for Julie.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Historical, Fiction, Juvenile, Chapter Books

88 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

"Sometimes I think I am Judy Moody," says Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody series, the Stink series, and THE SISTERS CLUB. "I'm certainly moody, like she is. Judy has a strong voice and always speaks up for herself. I like that."

For Megan McDonald, being able to speak up for herself wasn't always easy. She grew up as the youngest of five sisters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, an ironworker, was known to his coworkers as "Little Johnny the Storyteller." Every evening at dinner the McDonalds would gather to talk and tell stories, but Megan McDonald was barely able to get a word in edgewise. "I'm told I began to stutter," she says, leading her mother to give her a notebook so she could start "writing things down."


Critically acclaimed, the Judy Moody books have won numerous awards, ranging from a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year to an International Reading Association Children's Choice. "Judy has taken on a life of her own," the author notes, with nearly 3 million Judy Moody books in print. Interestingly, the feisty third-grader is highly popular with boys and girls, making for a strong base of fans who are among Megan McDonald's strongest incentives to keep writing, along with "too many ideas and a little chocolate." And now -- by popular demand -- Judy Moody's little brother, Stink, gets his chance to star in his own adventures! Beginning with STINK: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING KID, three more stories, and his own encyclopedia, STINK-O-PEDIA, Stink's special style comes through loud and strong -- enhanced by a series of comic strips, drawn by Stink himself, which are sprinkled throughout the first book. About the need for a book all about Stink, Megan McDonald says, "Once, while I was visiting a class full of Judy Moody readers, the kids, many with spiked hair à la Judy's little brother, chanted, 'Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink!' as I entered the room. In that moment, I knew that Stink had to have a book all his own."


More recently, Megan McDonald has recalled some of her own childhood with the warmth, humor -- and squabbles -- of three spunky sisters in THE SISTERS CLUB.


Megan McDonald and her husband live in Sebastopol, California, with two dogs, two adopted horses, and fifteen wild turkeys that like to hang out on their back porch.

Reviews

[Hannah Showalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved the focus on caring for the earth and animals in this one!! also was surprised that this was a birthday one for julie!

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julie is such a hippie!! I loved it and I continue to love all of the little 70s details

[Violette Bray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite Julie book so far! As a fellow Taurus (and someone with an Earth Day birthday!) I loved Julie’s initiative to save the eagles and raise awareness for their preservation. RIP to one of the baby eagles…I audibly gasped at this part. 💔 Julie is a true hippie and I LOVE HER.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

julie & ivy are chilling at the park when they hear a peeping sound. they follow it & located a baby owl that seems to have fallen out of its nest. a hippie lady wandering by suggests that they take it to a nearby vet clinic/rescue place for birds. julie stuffs the owl into her bag & goes over to the bird clinic. the grad student on staff says that it looks the owl has been poisoned by trace amounts of DDT that remain in the food chain, but that the veterinarian specialists may be able to save it. julie's attention is then diverted to an enclosure containing two adult bald eagles & their two babies. the grad student explains that one of the adults was injured in a nearby clear-cut, so the entire family was brought in for rehabilitation. but now the clinic is worried that they don't have the funds to release the eagle family back into the wild. apparently it costs around $1000 to build a special platform for the birds to live in until they feel confident enough to fly away & make a new home somewhere else. & every day they are kept in captivity reduces their chances for successfully re-integrating into the wild.

julie decides to use her petitioning skills to help out the eagles. she comes up with the idea to do some kind of weird kite-flying thing to raise money for the platform. her mom donates the kits, courtesy of her goofy hippie junk shop, & julie sells them for $5 a pop. somehow she fails to do the math that if her mom donates thirty kites & they are all purchased for $5, that will only raise $150, which is only 15% of what the clinic needs for the eagle release. nice work, julie. maybe you should spend less time making petitions & more time on your math homework. i also fail to see what a petition is going to do. the clinic does not need to be convinced of the importance of releasing the eagles. they just need money. there may have been something in here about how the petition was in fact presented to the company behind the clear-cut. julie thinks they should pay to release the eagles because they injured the bird in the first place. she even convinces her sister to drive her to the clear-cut, where she asks a lumberjack standing around to fork over the moolah. julie is fucking ridiculous.

anyway, eventually the money is raised, thanks in part to the hippie lady in the park, who--wouldn't you know it--is a wealthy bird-loving philantrophist. & the lumber company agreed to donate the wood needed for the construction of the tower. my question is, hasn't this clinic ever heard of grants? why are they taking is rescue birds & not trying to raise the money to have them released again? why are they just hanging around waiting for nine-year-old girls to get the money for them?

julie makes the eagle release part of her birthday celebration. she invites her friends & family to join her at the beach, in view of the tower, to watch for the eagles to fly away. man, that sounds SUPER EXCITING. except for actually not at all. apologies if i sound jaded--my boyfriend is a birdwatcher, so i have had a lot of exposure to this incredibly boring activity. the grad student tells julie not to get her hopes up--the eagles will probably stay in the tower for several days or weeks before they are ready to fly away. that is, after all, why the tower was constructed. but julie lucks out because the eagles fly away that very day while she is watching. good thing they sank all that money into a tower that got about half an hour of use. jesus.

the main thing i took away from this book is that it was a big oversight on the part of the american girl company to not make an eagles accessory set tie-in for sale for the julie doll. julie learns about how to feed a baby eagle using chopped up meat & a hand puppet that looks like an adult eagle head. that would be an AWESOME accessory set because it would be so awful. a terrifying eagle head puppet, a dish of plastic chopped meat, & a hideously ugly toy baby eagle. GENIUS! someone actually made a set like this themselves on an american girl messageboard i read sometimes & it is just as awesomely, geniusly ugly as i expected. LOVE IT.

[Adaela McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really brought me back to my teenage years. In the 1970's, I really thought people were all going to want to help the animals and plants on the planet. It was heartwarming to read about Julie, a dedicated Earth helper. It is just too bad that in real life, all the Julies couldn't convince everyone to keep helping the Earth, to go deeper, step by step.

[RaspberryRoses · Rating 4 out of 5]

a nice environmentalist story, but boy! almost 50 years later and. haha. um. sure is depressing to read now.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great AG marathon continues. Reading this for the first time as an adult, inspired by the American Girls podcast.

Feeling a little blue because Julie’s Christmas was a downer? Don’t worry: In addition to a magical Lunar New Year, she gets a magical birthday, too.
 
But before we get there, let’s talk about the animals. Because you know AG can’t throw a birthday party without an animal somewhere in the story.
 
Like Kaya’s fourth book, this one is overtly about the animals in question and Julie’s relationship to them. This time we start with an owlet that Julie and Ivy find in the park and take to an animal rescue, but the real stars (obviously, unless you’ve somehow missed the title of the book) are three bald eagles: a mating pair and their chick.
 
Like Lone Dog, the eagles are wild animals and Julie’s mission is to make sure they remain wild animals: money must be raised to build a hack tower to help them to re-adjust to life in the wild. And while Julie loves helping care for the eagles, and especially loves feeding Freckles, there’s no question of ever taming them.
 
Like many of these books, because there’s so much to pack in, there isn’t space for the kind of cyclical trial and error that would probably go along with a real nine-year-old trying to raise money for a new cause. So through the second half of the book, Julie flies from success to success: The kites in the park are a hit and even get Julie on TV. The woman they keep running into comes through with a big donation. Even the building company comes through with spare lumber. Everything works out just in time, and the eagles are able to soar.
 
(By the end, the sound clip in my head for Mrs. Woodacre is Burr and Hamilton going “We keep meeting!”)
  
Couple of other notes:
-  Because Julie’s setting is so recent, it feels like I could follow along on a map, which isn’t true of most AG series. It’ll be interesting to see if this is true for other series set in the 20th century. Molly’s in a fictional town, so she’s out. Kit’s Cincinnati travels have so far (through book 3) been places like home, school, Uncle Hendrick’s and the movies – nowhere I could plot on Google Maps. With Julie, you get not just a real city, but real place names like Haight St. and Golden Gate Park and the Randall Museum.
 
-  My one reservation is that this story is very tightly focused on THESE eagles and their immediate needs – allowing Julie to succeed and giving us a happy ending. I think there was one mention of DDT, which was a nice touch, but it would be nice to have more acknowledgement that this is one instance of a much, much bigger series of problems. At least we have the Looking Back section.
 
- The detail that made me the happiest? While it’s obvious from the cover that “and the Eagles” is going to be a la “save the whales,” not “Julie sees ‘Hotel California’ in concert,” I really wanted this book to at least mention the band. I got my wish.

More Julie babble:
Meet Julie | Julie Tells Her Story | Happy New Year, Julie | Julie and the Eagles | Julie's Journey | Changes for Julie

Good Luck, Ivy

The Tangled Web | The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter | The Silver Guitar | Lost in the City | Message in a Bottle

A Brighter Tomorrow

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant surprise. It is far less didactic and preachy than I expected, and educates children about environmental issues without demonizing everyone in the construction or logging industries. The book and the historical note are both fair and balanced, and provide context for the issues involved.

[Katie Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the least birthday-focused birthday story in the AG canon, but Julie would have an activist party. Plus I love her dress.

Just imagine if everyone had bought into the necessity of caring for the planet and all is inhabitants fifty years ago. That would have been nice.

[Sadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie is quite the little activist! This time it’s environmental not feminist. She’s saving the eagles one kite at a time. Very depressing the look back at the end talks about the history of the government forming the EPA and passing environmental acts- all threatened now. We’ll need lots of Julies now.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has everything. An iconic birthday outfit that AG actually made for the doll, environmentalism, and my favorite band. Couldn’t ask for anything better.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had me on my toes during certain points! Again, this book could have easily been called Julie's Birthday as she celebrates her birthday, the double digits!, in this book. I liked the book though.

[Faith Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

First and foremost, this is environmentalist. If you are one, this should thrill you. If not--you might love the book all the same.

I am not an environmentalist, so when Julie and her sister Tracy spoke out against a man working on having trees cut down, I thought, "Oh, boy. Where are we going with this?" The man was painted as a grouch while Julie and Tracy were angels.

But, much to my surprise, that lasted for only 1 of 58 pages. Most of the rest of the book was focused on saving the eagles--and who can go against that?! A celebration of Earth Day doesn't hurt either.

Nor does something I liked even more: Speaking out. This book has great messages, and they're not just about becoming an environmentalist. They're about finding what you want to fight for (or against) and taking action. Julie, though only 9, helped organize a fundraiser. This should inspire other girls about how they, too, can make a difference.

Moreover, there were messages about friends, family, and siblings sticking and working together. Though teamwork can be hard--though you may want to do something by yourself--Julie and the Eagles is a solid example of how it pays off.

Megan McDonald did a fantastic job in writing a few details that appeared minor here and there, only for them later on turning out to be important, even vital! The illustrations were not stunning masterpieces, but they were still realistic paintings that no ordinary person can do.

I almost stopped re-reading the American Girl: Julie series because of how much the first three books disappointed me. Now, I'm glad I didn't, for this is my favorite Julie book so far. By the end of the book, I found my heart soaring with the eagles.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julie and Ivy are having the time of their life eating snow cones at the Golden Gate park one day when they hear a very odd noise. It's a baby owel , and it needs major help. At a wild life animal rescue center julie meets her two favorite bald eagle buddies Shasta and Siarra. Shasta's wing is hurt, and julie is crossing her fingers that he will be able to fly again someday.But that can only happen if the animal shelter earns enough money to set them into thi wild. Julie comes up with a grand idea for earth day to raise money for the shelter. But money isn't exactly puring in, and time is almost out.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julie and Ivy are walking in the park one day when they resuce a baby owl. When they take the owl to a local rescue center, Julie becomes involved in raising money for the release of a family of bald eagles. I'm confused because the birthday invitation that Julie sends indicates that it is now 1976, but I don't remember two years passing in the books and the date for the series is 1974. The backmatter this time is on "Caring for the Earth in the 1970s" and briefly chronicles the beginning of the environmental movement.

[Laura Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have given the book one star if not for the message about saving the eagles and protecting the environment.

Even for a kid's book, the dialogue is very forced and stilted, not to mention corny.

The book felt more like "how can I insert Julie into my story about saving the eagles" instead of the other way around. Maybe that's what bugs me about the Julie books. She's so interchangeable and doesn't really come alive like the other American Girls.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the environmental stance this book took. It teaches about the origins of earth day and also the progress that's been made in environmental education over the last several decades. And it was highlighted by a cute story about a family of eagles and a girls determination to raise awareness of the growing danger to the eagles.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

For this book, it was about earth day and Julie was trying to save the eagles because there were only 30 pairs that had nests in all of California! On earth day next year, I also want to do something with my class and I hope it makes a difference in the world.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was really good because she tries to save the eagles and she keeps going to visit the eagles. I learned that sometimes you have to get through death even though it was one you really loved.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Grace, age 8, who wanted to give it 5 stars. 5/4/2019

The plot of this book is that Julie finds an owl that was poisoned with DDT. The next day Julie came back to check on the owl. Her friend Robin, the volunteer for the wildlife center, said that she brought the baby owl to the vet. Then she brought Julie to see the bald eagles. They are Shasta and Sarah. Shasta had his wing injured, and that's why he was at the wildlife center. They had two babies.
Soon Julie found out that if they don't get a hack tower by Friday they'll have to go the zoo. Julie did not want that for Shasta and Sarah. Then a few days afterwards one of the babies died and the other one was sick. Julie's sister Tracy just got her driver's license. They're now driving to where the people are cutting down trees for houses. The guy who they talked too said he probably could get them some lumber, but no promises. Later on Earth Day, which was a few weeks before Julie's birthday, Julie showed her class what she thought they should do for Earth Day. She had a slogan for "Save All Vanishing Eagles." They're going to set off 30 eagle kites for how many pairs of eagles are left in her country. $5 for each kite. After one of their friends gave them $5000 they were so close, but still not enough. But then the house builder's boss called and gave them the lumber wood. They were now able to build the hack tower.
And they did Not live Happily Ever After.

What I liked about this story was that it was about one of my favorite kinds of birds, and I like birds.
Nothing I didn't like about this story except that it was a little one-sided - full of "Our Earth is being polluted" people. Julie wasn't really a tree hugger, who cared more about trees than people, but wanted to practical things like clean up trash and save the bald eagles.

[Danielle T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't do a series on the 1970s without talking about the environmentalism movement! Julie and Ivy find a baby owl that fell out of a tree, and that leads Julie to start volunteering at a local wildlife rehabilitation center. At this point in time, California only has 30 nesting pairs of bald eagles, and one of them is here at the center recovering from a wing injury. However, if a hack tower isn't installed for their nest, the pair and their clutch will have to live in captivity. Bald eagles are one of the great successes of the Endangered Species Act (I see them periodically in my neck of the woods), but Julie and the Eagles is a reminder that recovery was needed for such a devastating bottleneck.

Funnily enough, Julie's birthday invites where she explicitly writes "1976" are what clued in other readers that the first one isn't actually 1974. I was suspicious when Tracy saw Jaws in a theater in 2, and the Chinese New Year being the start of a dragon year makes it explicit in 3. Julie and Ivy singing Take it To The Limit (released November 1975) also confirms this.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok this one is better than the first three. But it still seems SO random. Look, I know AG is about brining important parts of the girl's years to the story, but this is not doing it. I just think these are bad. But 4 stars becuase there's no weird family element. Oh wait. She invited both parents to one event. Ugh. Back to 3 it goes.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

This book kind of felt shallow in its conservation messaging. I know that a renewed interest in our environmental resources was a big movement during the 1970s, but Julie thinking she can raise enough money for a release project (if she did the math she would have known right away the amount of kites they sold would never reach the needed $), we could have saved a plot point.

I did think her wanting her birthday party to be focused on watching the eagles release was a cute idea.

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one! And learned a lot about Eagles to boot! Didn’t feel like the information was being spoon-fed to me either - it was weaved very expertly into the story. I’m really enjoying how much information about the ‘70s I’m learning from these stories! I can see why my mom loved growing up then ❤️

[Little Seal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily my favorite book of Julie's series, but maybe because the environmentalist and veganism in my heart. I was a bit of a Julie during my childhood, though she was a lot more badass than I was.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. Very cute story. I loved how passionate Julie was with wanting to help the eagles but this wasn’t my favorite. It was a bit boring. Not terrible or anything but it didn’t really grip me either.

[Amy Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a really good topic for an AG book and well represented. I do have one nit-pick though: the author definitely represented eagles as screeching like the red tailed hawk sound Hollywood uses. Eagles don't give powerful screeches, they give high pitched chirps.

[Kimberly Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite series of the AG series. Earth Day, Chinese New Year, endangered animals, bicentennial, and more.

[Karol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie and the Eagles shows the environmental awareness and involvement during the 1970's.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

More information about eagles and San Francisco. The gardens and parks sound delightful.