Product Description

Twelve-year-old Bryn feels lonely and isolated when she and her father move to a farm in Canada to live with her Aunt Pearl and cousin Winnie. Reprint. H. AB. PW.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3250802 in Books
• Published on: 1993-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 116 pages

From Publishers Weekly
When Bryn's mother dies, she and her father move to the farm in Ontario to live with relatives Bryn has never seen. Aunt Pearl stoically takes them in, al though struggling with the news of her sister's death and with meeting Bryn. Buchanan subtly follows the process of Bryn's grieving and her eventual ac ceptance of her mother's death--re flected in a series of dreams--and also the girl's increasingly close relation ship with her cousin, who has Down's syndrome. The close-knit, just-get ting-by community accepts the outsid ers, though Bryn must fight a few bat tles, physical and otherwise, to prove herself to her peers. In her compelling debut novel, Buchanan successfully develops difficult themes--mourning, mental retardation, rural poverty-- without sentiment or condescension, making Bryn and her family charac ters to care about. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7-- Twelve - year - old Bryn Cameron's life is shattered by the sudden death of her mother . Her down-on-his-luck father moves them from Ohio to Ontario , where they are taken in by the widowed Pearl, the apparently hard-hearted, long-estranged sister of the deceased Julia Cameron. While her father works long hours for their board and withdraws into his own thoughts, the lonely girl chafes at heavy new responsibilities and at Pearl's strictness and bossiness. Winnie, Pearl's daughter who has Down syndrome, is a constant presence who annoys, embarrasses, and even frightens Bryn. As months pass, Bryn comes to understand the adults in her life; becomes her cousin's defender against cruel taunts; and embarks on a romance with a boy who shares her love of books and reading. To him, she confides her secret--that her mother's death was self-inflicted, a fact that she has been unable to face. This is a slow-moving story, and the action is forced, or telegraphed far in advance. Several story lines are left hanging, and the explanation of the manner in which Bryn's mother died is awkwardly handled. It will require a mighty effort to become involved with the characters; few readers will have such resolve. --Libby K. White, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Bryn Cameron, 12, is confused and frightened: her father has pulled up stakes in Ohio and taken her to live with her recently deceased mother's sister in Ontario. At first, life on the farm is tense; Aunt Pearl seems stony and overfastidious, and Bryn must also adjust to her father's emotional withdrawal and to living with cousin Winnie, 14, who has Down's syndrome. But it turns out that Pearl is not as she first seemed: she loved Bryn's mother dearly and lives with the regret of their estrangement. Meanwhile, the other kids ridicule Bryn because of Winnie (maliciously dubbed ``Snake Girl''); but as Bryn bears daily witness to the love between Pearl and her daughter, she too learns to see beyond Winnie's limitations and becomes her champion at school, defying the bullying Rita and entering into a dangerous encounter that ends with the near-drowning of a child. Life begins to settle as Bryn's father starts to emerge from his shell and decides to stay at Pearl's. This first novel alternately delights and disappoints: while Winnie's relationships with Bryn and with Pearl are richly developed, there are many unanswered questions--not the least of which is why Bryn and her father have come to live with an estranged relative; there are also cryptic references to characters' motivations, particularly Rita's. An uneven first showing from an author worth watching. (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

The first really interesting book.
This had to be the first really interesting book that I had ever read. I got the book on a whim and couldn't put it down once I had opened it. No book had ever moved me the way this one book had. The way that Bryn eventually opened up to her Aunt Pearl and cousin Winnie. How she showed that there was nothing to fear or laugh at about a child with Down's Syndrome. Everything can trully work out if you give it time. A distant father can come back out of the shelled he sealed himself in. A cousin can learn to accept their cousin for who they are. And a neice can realize that a seemingly bitter aunt can be one of the best friends that you could ever ask for.

Remarkable Book
"The Falcon's Wing" is Dawna Lisa Buchanan's first children's novel. It's about a twelve-year-old girl named Bryn Cameron who moves from Circleville, Ohio, to Kenmore, Ontario, Canada, with her father. Bryn's mother has died recently and her father and her are coming to live with her mother's sister (Aunt Pearl) and her aunt's fourteen-year-old mentally handicapped daughter (Winnie) on their farm.

Bryn's new family takes some getting used to. She soon learns how nonexistent her mother's relationship had been with her sister: Aunt Pearl didn't know Julia (Bryn's mother) had died, or that Julia had a daughter. Even though her aunt welcomes them in to her home, she doesn't show a lot of interest in them at first and has some difficulty in showing affection. But Bryn knows Aunt Pearl isn't a cold woman; she's witnessed how compassionate her aunt can be when she's around Winnie.

Making friends in the small town soon becomes another obstacle, especially with her cousin tagging along (who some have nicknamed "Snake Girl" because of her slanted eyes). Despite their rudeness and jokes, Bryn still hangs out with the local kids (Cecil, Rita, Ed, Rachel, Virginia), and even saves one of them from drowning in the Castor River.

By the end of the book, Bryn is able to cope better with her mother's death, Rita (the bully), and her aunt and cousin. However, her father still seems to be a little distant. The only chance she has of understanding his loss of his wife is by reading the letters he still writes to Julia.

"The Falcon's Wing" is one of my favorite young adult books. The main characters are believable and I could sympathize with Bryn. The reading level is for ages 9 - 13, but I would recommend this book to anyone interested. Another book I would recommend is "The Summer of the Swans" by Betsy Byars (mentally handicapped family member).