Hawk

by Jennifer Dance

Overview

2018 Red Maple Award — Shortlisted • 2017 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award — Winner, Young Adult Category • CCBC’s Best Books for Kids&Teens (Fall 2016)

When a First Nations teen rescues a fish-hawk from a tailings pond in Alberta’s oil sands, he has no idea that soon they will both be fighting for their lives. 

As a cross-country runner, Adam aims to win gold in the upcoming provincial championship. But when he is diagnosed with leukemia, he finds himself in a different race, one that he can’t afford to lose. He reclaims the name Hawk, given to him by his grandfather, and begins to fight, for his life and for the land of his ancestors and the creatures that inhabit it. With a little help from his grandfather and his friends, he might just succeed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459731868
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	01/23/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	714 KB
Age Range:	12 - 15 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Dance was born in England and holds a B.Sc. in Agriculture and Animal Science from the University of the West Indies. She migrated to Canada in 1979. With family in the Native community, Jennifer has a passion for equality and justice for all people. Her first novel, Red Wolf, was endorsed by Giller Prize–winning author Joseph Boyden. An avid environmentalist, Jennifer lives on a small farm in Stouffville, Ontario.

Jennifer Dance was born in England and holds a B.Sc. in Agriculture and Animal Science from the University of the West Indies. She migrated to Canada in 1979. With family in the Native community, Jennifer has a passion for equality and justice for all people. Her first novel, Red Wolf, was endorsed by Giller Prize–winning author Joseph Boyden. An avid environmentalist, Jennifer lives on a small farm in Stouffville, Ontario.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Less than an hour ago, I was Adam, the long-distance runner. Now I’m Adam, the boy who...
      I can’t even bring myself to say it.
      The car engine dies, and I realize that we are in the garage, yet I have no recollection of the drive home from Dr. Miller’s office. I stare through the windshield. The walls of the garage swim around me. My thoughts won’t move past this can’t be happening.
      Angela walks around the car and opens my door. She’s my mother, but I never call her that. I figure she hasn’t earned the title. She didn’t raise me. Neither did my father. Most of the time, I don’t call him anything, but when I have to use a name, I call him Frank. I enjoy rubbing both their noses in the fact that although they are my biological parents, that’s as far as it goes. They never were and never will be Mom and Dad. They left me up in Fort Chipewyan when I was a baby, and they didn’t reclaim me until I was eight! Like I was a piece of lost luggage.
      “It will be okay,” Angela says. “It will be okay.”
      I climb out of the car and follow her into the house like a zombie. She’s like a zombie too, stuck on a repeat cycle of it will be okay.
I kick off my shoes and leave them where they lie. Angela puts them on the mat alongside hers. A question hits me like an arrow in the heart: how much longer will Angela have to deal with my mess? How much longer will she have to deal with me?
      I feel strange, like I’m floating, not walking. Angela hands me the mail, and I put it on the kitchen counter. It’s the same routine as before, but nothing is the same as before. Everything is different. An hour ago, I would have pounced on the McDonald’s flyer, stuffing the coupons in my pocket, but now I couldn’t care less.
      Life as I know it is over.

What People are Saying About This

Dr. John O'Connor

The tapestry Jennifer has woven is a brilliant representation of the ongoing tragedy in Northern Alberta today. It’s a story that young people need to hear, and it gives me hope!

Preface

Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Less than an hour ago I was Hawk, the distance runner. Now, I’m Hawk, the boy who... I can’t even bring myself to say it. The car engine dies and I realize that we are in the garage, yet I have no recollection of the drive home from Dr. Miller’s office. I stare through the windshield. The walls of the garage swim around me. My thoughts won’t move past this can’t be happening. Angela walks around the car and opens my door. She’s my mother, but I never call her that. I figure she hasn’t earned the title.
“It will be okay,” she says. “It will be okay.”
 I climb out of the car and follow her into the house like a zombie. She’s like a zombie, too, stuck on a repeat cycle of it will be okay. I kick off my shoes and leave them where they lie. Angela puts them on the mat alongside hers. A question hits me like an arrow in the heart: how much longer will Angela have to deal with my messiness? How much longer will she have to deal with me? How much longer…
I feel strange, like I’m floating, not walking. Angela hands me the mail and I put it on the kitchen counter. It’s the same routine as usual, but nothing is the same as usual. Everything is different. An hour ago, I would have pounced on the McDonald’s flyer that just came with the mail, stuffing the coupons into my back-pack, but now, I couldn’t care less. Life as I know it is over.

Editorial Reviews

Jennifer Dance is a skillful and intelligent writer with a heart large enough to care for all of the environment, animals and humans who are suffering as we speak. I am awed by the power of her words that make all my senses wake up and take notice of every detail she shares. Somewhere, someone is showing her the way to bring some kind of justice to this situation.

Josie Norton

With its soaring writing and readable plot, Jennifer Dance’s Hawk breathes new life into an important subject for middle grade readers. Hawk simultaneously dazzles and educates. Topical and hard to put down, this is a great choice for young Canadian readers.

Melissa Bell

A powerful presentation of what can happen to a people, a land, its natural inhabitants, and to individuals as a result of the upheaval of the natural balance of the area. The rich visual imagery that Dance has created...is breathtaking...this is a novel that needs to be on school curriculum.

Resource Links

Because Hawk takes place in the here-and-now, in a Canadian setting that has been in the news, it will have a strong impact and possibly stir readers to some type of action. Jennifer Dance is to be congratulated on this courageous, radical novel.

Canadian Materials Magazine

The tapestry Jennifer has woven is a brilliant representation of the ongoing tragedy in Northern Alberta today. It’s a story that young people need to hear, and it gives me hope!

Dr. John O'Connor