A Kestrel for a Knave

This little novel has always been hard to find in the U.S., but it's been a staple of school reading lists in England ever since it came out in 1968—and for good reason, as it's the sort of story, of a neglected, bullied boy in a poor mining town who comes alive when he learns to train a hawk, that you could imagine sparking life in young readers just as the hawk does for young Billy. It's a lovely, melancholy story (as is Ken Loach's faithful and equally lovely film version, Kes), and of course anyone who adored Helen Macdonald's memoir, H Is for Hawk, as much as I did will delight to return to the strangely compelling partnership between wild bird and human hand.