Understanding and Empathy: The Boy Who Flew With Eagles

At the beginning of Ben Woodard’s children’s book, The Boy Who Flew With Eagles, a Native American elder relates a story to the younger generation. That narrative frame is used to relate the rest of the book’s story. While only a small number of paragraphs are used to support the framing device in the beginning and the end, it’s a nice atmospheric touch and a nice reminder of the lengthy heritage of storytelling, especially in this modern age of e-readers and internet distribution.

As one might derive from the title, the story itself is a briskly paced tale of a young Native American boy who ends up captured by a mother eagle but subsequently befriends the eagle and her family. Though this is a children’s book, the author doesn’t dumb-down the language, but neither does he make it overwhelming. Grade school readers will, I believe, find the writing engaging and accessible. There’s a combination of both action and character development to excite them and get them to understand the main character.

While as a parent, I don’t believe that it’s inherently wrong to have violence in children’s books (after all, violence is a part of life and existence), the current media landscape for children is somewhat saturated by stories that feature a lot of battle. There’s a threat of violence in this tale in relation to the cycle of life, but otherwise the story is free of those elements.

For a relatively short tale, there’s a surprising amount of thematic heft. A variety of subjects from resource usage responsibility to empathy are handled in a way that are accessible for children. In that way, this book would probably lend itself well to a classroom or library discussion, but can be enjoyed quite well by younger readers without any sort of critical analysis involved.

4 Stars