Frightful’s Mountain by Jean Craighead George

This is the third book in the series beginning with My Side of the Mountain and On the Far Side of the Mountain. I haven’t read the first two, so I can’t compare them to Frightful’s Mountain. However, my daughter and I enjoyed this book so much that we plan on reading the original two books.

Frightful is a peregrine falcon raised illegally since she was a hatchling by a boy, Sam Gribley. As the novel begins, Frightful has been stolen from Sam by poachers. Frightful manages to escape which begins her adventure to find home, aka Sam. While trying to find her way back to Sam, she must learn to be a peregrine. George expertly weaves her meticulous research through the story, so children don’t know they’re learning while reading. Frightful’s encounters with poachers, animals, power lines, and a construction project keep this story suspenseful until the end. Three out of four bookworms.