Sonderbooks Book Review of

by Kara Hagedorn

This is one of those nonfiction books with big, cute pictures of baby animals – which make it an easy win for booktalking.

The main story is of a rescued red-tailed hawk. She’d been shot and found with a broken wing. She’d never fly again. Kara Hagedorn is a zoologist who works at a wildlife center. She took care of the hawk, named her Sunshine, and bonded with her.

Sunshine made a habit of laying eggs and sitting on them – even though they were infertile and would never hatch. Sunshine would take good care of the eggs – and expect Kara to help her – but Kara had to get rid of the eggs each summer to stop Sunshine waiting forever for them to hatch.

But one year, Kara got two fertilized eggs from a local chicken farmer and placed them in Sunshine’s nest.

Even though in the wild, hawks kill and eat baby chickens, Sunshine adopted these as her own and cared for them until they became fully grown roosters.

This lovely book tells a simple but heart-warming story and is illustrated with large photographs throughout.