The way that love of animals often seems to bring out the best in people, e.g. Callum and his friends.

There is also an interest in Nature in the book which can be connected to Science. Activities such as, creating a fact-file of Osprey’s or getting children to explore their local environment through researching what birds they have near them could be influential in expanding their knowledge of living things and their habitats which is of significance in the Science National Curriculum. I would also look Lewis’ use of ellipsis to build suspense and create tension in the story, for example: “I CAN’T! One. . . Do it. Go. . . The ground was gone. I was flying. . . falling.”. Using this technique keeps the reader on the edge of their seat and teaches children that when writing an exciting story, it can be a more effective way of writing because the reader has to wait longer to find out what has happened. We would come up with own examples of ellipsis to display on the board and then we would have a go at writing suspenseful paragraphs in Lewis’ style.

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I really want this book it seems really good and interesting! It looks brilliant to read I can't wait if I receive this book I have very mixed feelings about this book, i would say it is very much a book of two halves. To begin with it was absolutely captivating, the slow buildup to actually finding out about the Ospreys was great. It really felt as if I was reading the imagination of a child discovering such a unique thing and keeping it a secret.

I disliked the fact that Iona died in the book as I felt that it wasn’t necessary to the book and it made the book a little sad. This could affect children if the book was being read to key stage 1. However, the rest of the story is lovely to read with a happy ending. It didn’t feel like there was a clear link to the story for Iona to die therefore it didn’t feel as if it was needed.Due to Skyhawk being an enjoyable story, the book would also be suitable to read as a class story with any KS2 class. The chapters aren’t too long so at least one could be read at a time. Lewis’ ‘Sky Hawk’ is a story of friendship, perseverance, hope and mystery set in the countryside of Scotland. It is about two unlikely friends, protagonist Callum and fiery Iona, who share an incredible secret that pushes their emotions to the edge as they struggle to protect it. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found myself in tears at one point because I was so invested in Lewis’ very real characters. The book would go into the adventure and animal category and would be suitable for children 9 and older (Upper Key Stage Two). An adventure story with a strong theme of friendship and loyalty. This book has the most wonderfully vivid descriptions of the Scottish landscape, and would appeal to anyone interested in wildlife and conservation. This is an outstanding book, it is breath taking and it really captivated me into the story. I loved it, this is by far the best book that I have ever read The courage of the author in killing off a quirky lead character early in the book. Meningitis is a very abrupt death. The author's choice to end a prominent character's role without much warning is tribute to the fact that this is a dangerous disease that strikes fast and invokes fear in the community when it occurs. I happen to know a beautiful, genuinely good, healthy young college graduate who died suddenly overnight after falling asleep with a fever as Iona did, and there is no foreshadowing possible. The truth can be painful. That the author chose to include this very rare occurrence in a child's life, while having a fragile, wounded migrating bird survive against all odds, is a risky decision as an author, but one that had a huge impact on Callum's character development.

This book took me two days to read as I just couldn’t put it down. It was just such an easy journey to follow and be a part of. There is so much you can do with characterisation: Callum is such an interesting character as he is incredibly subtle and reserved in his speech but as a narrator, you can really connect with him and understand his internal thoughts and feelings towards Iona and the ospreys. Callum and Iona dedicate themselves to such a heartwarming and resilient journey to ensure the safety of the ospreys and even without Iona, Callum remains strong and determined to fight for Iris until the very end. Throughout the book there are also opportunities to interweave PSHE, for instance, discussing the treatment of wild birds in the book and why it is important to protect such rare species. The book moreover, holds strong themes of relationships - family and friendship. Specifically, the challenges we face in relationships such as, bully, jealousy and loss, topics which are relatable to pupils. Sky hawk is a realy good book. It's about this boy called Callum and this girl called Iona and Iona finds a realy rare bird thats not been seen for over 100 years and they lookafter it. And a couple days later they dicide they're going to camp out but Iona didn't make it but the problem is callum dicovers Iona dies. In the novel there was a continuous pattern of love and friendship: Callum developed a loving and caring friendship with Iona and Jeneba. There is also patterns of kindness and care: Callum continues to care and look after the bird and he cares for his family and friends.

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A good activity that could develop the children’s knowledge of the book may be to ask the children to illustrate the front cover and consider the main themes that they think are important in the book. It dealt with implying that there were problems with Iona's home life, this meant that more mature readers would understand the implications of what was said but not younger.