Hawksmaid by Kathryn Lasky

I am on vacation this week, and believe it or not, I, the librarian, forgot to check out a book to read on my trip.  So at the last minute I grabbed one off of my shelf at home.  It is an ARC (advanced reader copy) that I received years ago, but never read.  I hadn't read it because I am not a huge fan of Kathryn Lasky.  She is a writer that children love, but adults, not so much.  Her books lack...I don't know...sophistication, if that makes sense. That said, I enjoyed this book.  It is a "popcorn-and-peanuts" kind of read, and a good kind of "not so deep" story for a week on vacation.

     Matty is the daughter of a wealthy baron.  Her mother is trying to make her into a lady, but she prefers spending time with her father and his beautiful hawks.  Then one day Prince John's men attack her home, steeling all their fortune and killing Matty's mother.  Now motherless and penniless  Matty spends more and more time with the hawks, and with the rag tag team of urchin boys from the village.  The book covers a span of several years, and the reader is able to see Matty, and her best friend, Robert, grow into the famous Maid Marian and Robin Hood.  As Matty grows, her connection to her birds becomes deeper and then uncanny.  In the end Matty and the birds must work as one to save the kingdom and free the captive King Richard.