The Tale of Pale Male

January 29, 2007
Winter's (The Librarian of Basra
) fluid, accessible narrative relays the true tale of two Red-tailed hawks that took up residence at the top of a Manhattan apartment building. Excited bird-watchers observe from the street as Pale Male and his mate, Lola, diligently build their nest behind spikes designed to keep pigeons away. Pale Male brings mother-to-be Lola mice and birds to eat, and the residents of the Fifth Avenue apartment below are hardly happy when the scraps land on their balcony. After hawk chicks hatch in the spring, they eventually learn to fly and to hunt on their own; they and their parents become local celebrities. Alas, "the apartment people," fed up with falling bones, surreptitiously arrange to have the hawks' nest (its sticks and twigs weigh 400 pounds) removed, inciting a protest ("Ah, victory!/ The watchers convince the apartment people/ to let the hawks build a new nest"). The tone of the tale breezily engages readers ("Will they fall?," asks the narrative as the fledglings attempt their first flight), who will be tickled to learn from a concluding note that the hawks—as of spring 2006—were still living in their outdoor penthouse. Winter's trademark spare, folk-art illustrations feature a pleasingly muted palette, befitting both the bird heroes and the cityscape. Ages 3-7.

March 1, 2007
Gr 1-5-Winter documents the controversy surrounding New York City's famous red-tailed hawk. When Pale Male and his mate built a nest high on the side of a Fifth Avenue apartment building, they attracted the attention of local bird-watchers. The humans celebrated when baby hawks hatched, grew, and learned to fly. However, some residents complained about bird droppings and animal remains falling from the hawks' living space. In December 2004, the nest was removed, generating local protests and national media attention. Eventually, the nesting spot was restored. As Winter indicates in an author's note, Pale Male has fathered more than 20 chicks with a number of mates since 1993. Winter's illustrations subtly bring out the humor of the situation. While earthbound humans stare up at the birds, applaud the chicks' hatching, and wave signs to protest the nest's removal, the redtails carry on with their lives above the fray. Their inscrutable expressions vary little as they remain intent on hunting yet another mouse or small bird. Only the pink, heart-shaped clouds in the sky behind their courtship flight hint at possible avian emotion. The book should increase readers' awareness of these common predators in their surroundings, no matter where they live. Those who want to learn more facts about the species might consult Doug Wechsler's "Red-Tailed Hawks" (Rosen, 2001). Barbara Bash introduces a number of other avian city dwellers in "Urban Roosts" (Little, Brown, 1992)."Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2007
A heartening story, this attractive picture book tells of a red-tailed hawk that makes a place for itself on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Working with acrylics on watercolor paper, Winter uses Easter-egg colors to frame her appealing cityscapes. She introduces the red-tailed hawk as a type before launching into a nicely abbreviated version of a story that may seem familiar to many adults: a hawk (this one nicknamed Pale Male) makes a nest on the pigeon spikes of an apartment building. The "apartment people," as Winter refers to them, remove the nest, but protestors rally in support of the hawk, and Pale Male is eventually able to rebuild. Winter blends the realistic with the fanciful throughout the story; there are purple and green apartment buildings as well as recognizable architectural elements of the Central Park skyline. But the book's high points, not surprisingly, are the renderings of Pale Male and his mate, hunting, soaring, gliding, and diving all over the park's vivid greenery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2007
In the early 1990s, "Pale Male" and his mate became the first red-tailed hawks to nest in Manhattan, where high-rise buildings offer a modern alternative to cliffs. Several mates and more than twenty chicks later, Pale Male still nests on Fifth Avenue-twelve stories up, on an elegant faade, supported by spikes meant to repel pigeons-though not without a recent eviction and reinstatement. In December 2004, building tenants, distressed by the ongoing rain of bones and other detritus, removed the hawks' eight-foot-wide, four-hundred-pound nest and the spikes. However, pleas from passionate bird-lovers who had been observing the hawks from nearby Central Park prevailed: after much negotiation, new spikes were installed; the birds are back. Winter's text is concise and easily understood, though marred by a typo (musuem). She weaves in intriguing details of both animal behavior (Pale Male woos a mate with a dead mouse) and human behavior (energized by media coverage, protesting bird-lovers number in the hundreds). All is appealingly visualized in her clean signature style, the flat, stylized forms arranged with a graphic skill that clarifies action and enhances drama. The bright colors of the window-shaped, formally framed illustrations are set off by borders of more muted tones to handsome, sophisticated effect. Once again (Mama, rev. 5/06; The Librarian of Basra, rev. 1/05), Winter has created exemplary nonfiction for the youngest readers.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)