4 out of 4 stars
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Freedom is for the Birds is a wonderful tale about a family of red-tailed hawks migrating south to the Naming Ceremony. The adult hawks, K'Lar and D'Ree, find a new territory to have their newest brood of hatchlings, Kmin and Kmal. They must teach their younglings everything they are going to need to know for their migration. The young of all animals must attend a school taught by Griffin to learn about Mother Nature and her Life Lessons, as well as learning about the human world. This knowledge will help them in finding a territory of their own and living in the world with humans.
The Hawks were humanized a little bit, for example, the animals had containers for water, had ways of writing. Griffin was able to steal from the humans. In his home he had books he had stolen from the humans. He also had a globe of the world. I'd like to know the story of how he came to have that globe. The globe I am picturing in my mind had no way for him to carry it. He taught young animals of different species like swallows, hawks, rabbits, and deer. When he was teaching about the humans he got worked up and angry at the human's treatment of animals. He spoke of the arrogance humans have about animals. For example, he told the younglings that humans think they are better and smarter than animals because the can't understand the animal's language. The human's don't think the animals' can feel emotions.
My favorite part of the story is when the younglings were learning the story of Mother Nature. I thought it was a very good explanation of the how the world came to be. It kind of reminded me of some religious stories of how God created the world in seven days. I liked how it also included evolution. For example, Griffin says, "Mother Nature evolved each species and gave them rich, thick coats of warm fur or feathers or scales, and made them waterproof." I found the story of Mother Nature very interesting and very believable.
I would have to rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I saw no errors, it was well written and from my perspective professionally edited. J.M. Sutherland had stated, in the brief description of herself, that she was an animal rights enthusiast and it really showed in her writing. I enjoyed reading Freedom is For The Birds, it gave me a new view on how I see animals around me. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes to read about animals. I do believe that this book would help arrogant humans maybe realize that we are the real savage species. We kill for sport, animals kill for survival. This book really opens the door for all the differences that animals do and humans take for granted.
The Life Lessons in the story are amazing lessons that most humans teach our children. For example, patience, humility, charity, love, determination, helpfulness, honesty, forgiveness, peace, joy, and thankfulness. All lessons we know of, but we let our emotions get out of balance like our anger, envy, and despair. This book points out how thoughtless and selfish humans can be when it comes to the lives of animals. But it also shows how caring and selfless some humans can be. I liked that it showed both sides of human nature as well as animal nature. It painted the picture that animals can be just like us emotionally.
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Freedom Is For The Birds
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