A kestrel for a knave
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15
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Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a disillusioned teenager growing up in a small Yorkshire mining town. Violence is commonplace and he is frequently cold and hungry. Yet he is determined to be a survivor and when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk he discovers a passion in life. Billy identifies with her proud silence and she inspired in him the trust and love that nothing else can. Intense and raw and bitingly honest, A KETREL FOR A KNAVE was first published in 1968 and was also madeinto a highly acclaimed film, 'Kes', directed by Ken Loach.
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A Kestrel for a Knave is a day in the very difficult life of a young man in a terribly poor part of England. Billy finds little happiness—not at home with his mother and brother, not at school with his (mostly) cruel teachers and taunting peers—in his life. It is only when he trains a hawk that he feels peace.
Because I work with many, many children who come from the 2017 American version of the main characters in Kestrel, I found the story to be like walking with a poor kid for a whole day. I was appalled by that walk, especially by the actions of some of my educational peers of that time and place.
It felt like a visit to a foreign land, though it wasn't just because of the setting; poverty of that sort is outside my personal experience, and, I imagine, completely outside the experience of most of our leaders, the people who make decisions, in theory, for the people of their organizations and all the people they represent.
This is what life is like for so many children. A Kestrel for a Knave is a vivid picture of life for working class people everywhere. Policymakers...voters...teachers...this is a book you should read.
