Stand on the sky
Aisulu is a Kazakh nomad girl living in Mongolia. She has always been a bit different - she likes girl things well enough and milks the yaks and fetches water as a daughter should, but she also likes math and a fast ride on her horse, Moon Spot, that she tamed herself. But when her brother Selik breaks his leg trying to catch an eagle, and is discovered to have osteosarcoma, everything changes for Aisulu. Her parents rush off to the city with Selik, leaving Aisulu to tend the herds alone. She rescues the dead eagle's chick, moves in with her aunt and her uncle, a former Burkitshi (eagle hunger), and begins to tame the eaglet, which she names Toktar. Soon it becomes clear that Aisulu and Toktar have a special bond, and her uncles begins training her to become an eagle hunter herself, even though she is a girl, and girls do not become eagle hunters. Aisulu is not sure she can do it - but when she finds out that there will be a Festival, and foreigners (from ESPN, a crew filming "the weird sports") have provided a substantial prize, Aisulu changes her mind. The prize can buy her brother an expensive prosthetic leg and allow him to run and ride again. Her uncle begins training her, Toktar and Moon Spot and her aunt enlists the women to create a suitable and special outfit for the competition, something fit for a Burkitshi. The odds are stacked against her, but Aisulu is determined to prove herself and help her family.
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- ISBN: 9781443163798
- Physical Description 312 pages ; 22 cm
- Publisher [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2019.
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Summary
Stand on the Sky
Stand on the Sky is the 2019 winner of the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature! A gripping new read from Erin Bow, acclaimed and bestselling author of Plain Kate and The Scorpion Rules! She had always heard that the eagle chooses the eagle hunter. She wanted that. She wanted her eagle to come to her. To choose her. It goes against all tradition for Aisulu to train an eagle, for among the Kazakh nomads, only men can fly them. But everything changes when Aisulu discovers that her brother, Serik, has been concealing a bad limp that risks not just his future as the family's leader, but his life too. When her parents leave to seek a cure for Serik in a distant hospital, Aisulu finds herself living with her intimidating uncle and strange auntie -- and secretly caring for an orphaned baby eagle. To save her brother and keep her family from having to leave their nomadic life behind forever, Aisulu must earn her eagle's trust and fight for her right to soar. Along the way, she discovers that family are people who choose each other, home is a place you build, and hope is a thing with feathers. Erin Bow's lyrical middle grade debut is perfect for fans of original animal-friendship stories like Pax and Because of Winn Dixie.