Hawk is enough for Kez (A Kestrel for a Knave - Barry Hines)

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Product:	A Kestrel for a Knave - Barry Hines
Date:	24/10/00 (4594 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great read

Disadvantages: sad ending

A Kestrel for a Knave written by Barry Hines, a book that is structured in a series of flashbacks. The past is mixed in with the present. A moving book that focus’s on the relationship between one boy, Billy Casper and his hawk. The Hawk brings something into Billy’s life, something worth living for. Something he was lacking before.

His home life is a mixture of bitterness and loneliness, nobody loves him or cares for him, and his older brother makes lives for worse for him. Constantly bullying him, and destroying any happiness he may have. School is no better than home, the school’s policy is one of punishment, the cane will be used if it has to, and Billy is usually at the end of the punishment.

The Hawk is a contrast to every other part of Billy’s life, it’s brings excitement and joy into his life, and for the first time in his life he is interested in it, even going to the library to steal a book about Hawks shows he is committed. The Hawk is more than a friend and is a pet he can talk to, without getting verbal abuse.

Later in the book, Billy’s life is destroyed, someone has taken the Hawk from him, his life is back to square one, This is a good read, well written book showing how a Hawk can change a boy’s outlook on life and how that is taken away from him by his bullying brother. I read this book when I was studying for my GCSE, and still think it is an excellent book.

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