What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

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► UNSOLVED: One specific book > YA coming of age novel series? Boy has friendship with some sort of Bird of Prey (e.g., kestrel, falcon). Title: incl. Flight? Read in late 1980s/early 1990s.

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message 1: by Rachel Hughes (new)

Rachel Hughes | 1 comments It is not the book 'A Kestrel for a Knave'
I think the book was in a series.
I think it might have been based on a farm of some sort but not sure.
I think the boy had somehow come to live with people/family that was not his own - perhaps he worked for them.
The bird may have been a Kestrel or Falcon or something similar.
It may have had Flight in one of the book titles.
I think it was a coming of age type series where the boy matured over time maybe from teens on.
There may have been a romance for the boy with the daughter of his boss?
I read it as a child so likely read in late eighties or in nineties.
It's driving me insane!


message 2: by Kris (new)

Kris | 55042 comments Mod
Rachel, I added a few details to the header/topic title. You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, click the "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)


message 3: by SBC (new)

SBC (essbeecee) | 1594 comments Possibly Frightful's Mountain by Jean Craighead George?


message 4: by Kris (new)

Kris | 55042 comments Mod
Here's one of Google Books' snippet searches of SBC's suggestion - Frightful's Mountain by Jean Craighead George. You might get lucky searching for keywords:

https://books.google.com/books?id=PdS...

Amazon has an excerpt from chapter 1: https://www.amazon.com/Frightfuls-Mou... (scroll down the page)


message 6: by SBC (new)

SBC (essbeecee) | 1594 comments I think I may have just accidentally come across your book while looking at something unrelated. Is it Flight of the Grey Goose by Victor Canning? Or its sequel The Painted Tent? The first book in the trilogy is The Runaways.


message 7: by Kris (new)

Kris | 55042 comments Mod
Kirkus Review of One More Flight by Eve Bunting - Rainbowheart's suggestion:

"A chronic runaway from foster homes and from the Center where he's spent most of his eleven years, Dobby is lucky enough on his latest flight to be picked up by nineteen-year-old Timmer who lives in a barn and takes care of injured birds for the Audubon Society. To Dobby's disappointment, Timmer sends him back to the Home; but meanwhile the two become friends, and Dobby learns something he can apply to his own situation as he comes to understand why Timmer won't release the birds until they're "ready." ..."


message 8: by Kris (last edited Dec 13, 2022 01:57PM) (new)

Kris | 55042 comments Mod
Google Books preview of Flight of the Grey Goose by Victor Canning - SBC's suggestion:

https://books.google.com/books?id=jHU... There are different cover images.


message 9: by Rose (new)

Rose Paris | 174 comments Your book sounds like it was a realist type but the The Wings of a Falcon is a coming of age fantasy book


message 10: by Kris (new)

Kris | 55042 comments Mod
Memp's suggestion (Oct 20, 2022) from a deleted duplicate thread:

"Do you mean it was written in the 90s, or that's when you read it? Here are two but they were written in the 50s, so possibly too early.

Falconer's Lure by Falconer's Lure? The boy's name is Patrick and he lives on an estate in the south of England in the 1950s. His birds are named Jael, Regina, and Sprog. This book is a part of the Marlows series, some others of which also feature Patrick and the Sprog.

Or maybe the My Side of the Mountain Trilogy by Jean Craighead George? A boy named Sam goes to live in the Catskills Mountains and raises a falcon (named Frightful) from a chick."


message 11: by Jeff (new)

Jeff | 3 comments You don't mention fantasy, so it's probably not this, but there is enough similar in your description that I feel I should mention Owlflight by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, which is the first book of a trilogy that continues with Owlsight and Owlknight. Protagonist is named Darian and he goes from early teens to early twenties over the course of the trilogy, I believe.


message 12: by Katrina (new)

Katrina Timberlake | 5 comments I thought the same thing!


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