Meanwhile, Matty's childhood friends are becoming restless with the oppression of Prince John's henchmen and her dearest friend, Fynn, decides to fight back by robbing the rich. She finds her gift for training and bonding with the hawks her father has raised and eventually will take on the challenge of training a merlin, the true test of her abilities. Matty is a very self-reliant girl who will grow into womanhood as the story progresses. Matty hides instead up in the tower mews where the hawks are kept and emerges after the battle to see her mother's necklace, the Star of Jerusalem, dripping with her mother's blood and dangling from the hand of Sir Guy of Gisborne. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.'Matty is our only jewel.' 'Where should I put her?' 'In the potato hole.' Desperately, Lady Suzanne, is going to try to hide her daughter, Matty, in the potato hole so Prince John's henchmen won't find her. Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MDĬopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Lasky nicely weaves details of 12th-century life into this suspenseful adventure whose fantasy ending may surprise but will certainly please readers. Her five hawks are distinctive, and for them, the author of the owl fantasy series Guardians of Ga'hoole, has created a language and a convincing, if anachronistic, falconer. Matty may have been her father's jewel, but her growing affection for Robin does not turn her back into a decorative object she is the heroine of her successful quest, leading both birds and boys.

There is a gentle but thoroughly modern love story, too. In Lasky's reimagining of this legend, Marian is chief strategist of the band of boys who rob the rich, harass Prince John's evil supporters, and hope to ransom captive King Richard. Half-orphaned and often hungry, she grows to be Maid Marian, friend and coconspirator with her childhood companion Fynn, renamed Robin Hood. Grade 5-9 After her mother is murdered and the family's castle is looted by followers of Prince John, Matty takes over the management of her father's hawks, learning their language and coming to share their consciousness.

Hawksmaid