"The Wide Awake Loons" is a beautifully written middle grade fiction work about a mated pair of loons and a young girl who becomes involved with protecting them and their loonlets. Owala and Yudel are the loons who arrive at Lake Song-of -the-Sky up north near where 10 year old Ginny comes to spend her usual summer at the cabin with her family. Told partly from the viewpoint of the loons themselves, "The Wide Awake Loons" contrasts the wild and challenging environment inhabited by the loons with the human-harboring environment Ginny is familiar with. Incredible authentic details about life and survival habits and skills of the loons are woven into this engrossing nature story. Ginny finds a role as protectoress of the loons and their chicks, along with her friend Wes. Prize winning author Holmes paints a Northern setting with vast skill and delicacy for the reading and educational pleasure and appreciation of middle grade and older readers.
Ginny, who's 10, discovers a loons' nest on an island near her family's summer cabin. She keeps the place secret to protect the red-eyed birds with the eerie, mournful call.
Chapters about Ginny's experiences with her friends alternate with chapters from the point of view of the loon couple, Yudel and Owala: "Water sprayed as Owala skated the lake, her wings splayed back. Then she sank joyfully into the cool bath of Lake Song-of-the-Sky. At once, she dove into the fir-colored water and when she burst out again, there was Yudel swimming toward her."
Ginny and her friends protect the loons by capturing a big snapping turtle that threatens the chicks, moving the dangerous creature to another part of the lake. When a fisherman carelessly cuts his line and the hook catches in Yudel's mouth, another friend of the loons comes to the rescue.
Holmes, who lives in Duluth, tells a story that will resonate with every youngster who has been startled by a loon's "song." And she does it in the kind of lovely prose kids should be exposed to from the day they are born.
Review by Mary Ann Grossman
