This one we received as an ARC from our local library, so we neither bought it nor checked it out, like we usually do.
But oh, am I glad my daughter got this one! THIS is a fantastic read. We can't gush enough about this one.
The story is simple at its core: a girl does what she must to save her brother's life.
Except in context -- Mongolia in an undetermined year not far from the present -- it's far more difficult than that.
Because when Aisulu rescues the eagle chick she and her brother, Serik, inadvertently sentence to die by breaking its mother's wing (thus killing her), she's taking a revolutionary stand -- a first step in the journey to becoming a burkitshi, an eagle hunter.
But it is always the eagle that chooses the burkitshi, and we balled our eyes out in the end!
This is a MUST read.
And if you're interested in some astounding pictures, real-life pictures, of the inspiration for the MC (because the author did her homework and traveled to Mongolia to write this story!), check out this unaffiliated, but related, story link: Photographer Captures One of the Last Surviving Female Eagle Hunters of Mongolia
And there's a trailer for a documentary, The Eagle Huntress, which really brings the words / story alive. I love to see both forms of a story -- the documentary, non-fiction and the fictitious. Both book and movie are simply stunning.
