High as a Hawk: A Brave Girl's Historic Climb - T. Barron

Inspiring account of young climber.

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Common Sense rates it
4
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Book details
  • Author:T. Barron
  • # of pages: 32
  • Publisher:Penguin Putnam Inc.
  • Original Publication Date: 11/19/2004
  • Genre: Fiction - Picture Book
  • Hardcover: $16.99
  • Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 4-8
  • Read Aloud: 4+
  • Read Alone: 7+

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that 8-year-old Harriet Peters feels the absence of her mother, who has recently died. But she puts her trust in her father and in a mountain guide she has befriended.

Families can talk about how Harriet chooses to climb a mountain to remember her mother, who loved nature.

Message

Social Behavior:

Harriet honors her deceased mother.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Violence

Sex

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Amy Brotman

In the darkness of early morning, Harriet Peters starts climbing Colorado's Longs Peak with her father and famous mountain guide, Enos Mills. When her father collapses in exhaustion, Harriet begs to go on to accomplish the dream of her deceased mother --- to reach the top, and to see a hawk.

Painful blisters, a thundering herd of elk, howling wind, and a snowstorm threaten Harriet's mission. But Harriet and her guide are a powerful team. They find reward in a pair of shining wings.

Is it any good?

4

T. A. Barron is best known for his young adult fantasy novels. But he succeeds as a picture book author as well. Inspired by the true story of Harriet Peters' 1905 climb up Longs Peak with Enos Mills, founder of the Rocky Mountain National Park, Barron deftly recounts the climbing tale as he has imagined it. Although in his endnotes Barron admits to taking poetic license, he explains that Enos Mills' daughter and granddaughter supported his research, and that his story's historical basis is accurate.

Barron's first-person narrative feels authentic. Young Harriet shares her wonder, fear, exhaustion, and exhilaration with the reader. In a read-aloud session, listeners gasp when a herd of elk startle Harriet; they moan when Harriet escapes from snow, thunder, and lightening under a lip of rock. And best of all, they can't take their eyes off Ted Lewin's stunning illustrations. Taking his cues from a 1905 photo of Mills and Peters (Barron gives no clues as to who took the photo, included in the endnotes), Lewin's up-close images create light, movement, and emotion that give the book great impact.

From the Book:
Up, up, up. Steeper than my attic stairs! I slid on frosty grass and scraped both knees. Then I tried to hold on to a bush and got a fistful of thorns. At last I rested by a tree, breathing heavy as an old mule. My sides ached, my knees throbbed. Up ahead, Pa was coughing. Why couldn't Ma have picked something easier?

Other choices

More Books by T. A. Barron
The Great Tree of Avalon
The Lost Years of Merlin
Heartlight
Tree Girl
Where is Grandpa?

Books illustrated by Ted Lewin
Cowboy Country by Ann Herbert Scott
The Girl on the High-Diving Horse by Linda Oatman High
Peppe the Lamplighter by Elisa Barton

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43 votes