This is the super deluxe version of the plot- tween girl gets placed with unknown relative because her own mother is currently not capable of caring for her.

Super deluxe because there are two similar parallel plots lines taking place simultaneously and intertwined between the two main characters, Reenie and Rufus. This is a gourmet read.

The first plot line begins in the Prologue with a hatchling Great Horned Owl. The second plot line deals with Reenie who is being placed with her father’s aunt (there is no other mention of a father in the entire book). The chapters go back and forth between Reenie and Rufus (a Great Horned Owl hatchling) who have both temporarily lost their mothers.

Rufus’s chapters are written from his point-of-view using such words as: wing-toes for fingers, human nest for house, monster for motor vehicle, furless creatures for humans, and Brown Frizz for Reenie.

Along the way, Reenie must move to a new school where she very cautiously makes two friends, something she has not had, due to trust issues, in quite some time. The new friends are grouped together on a research project. Here the two plots intertwine in a new way when Reenie’s Great Aunt Bea, a falconer who works as a vet tech, rescues a young injured great horned owl, and Reenie’s portion of the project will involve falconry, and Rufus.

“I’m smiling and crying, happy and sad, so many feelings, all real, all at once.” (272)