Karma is thirteen and she wants to be a falconer. Right now she's her dad's unofficial apprentice, handling the raptors in Montana. But a stray gyrfalcon Stark handled by Karma was lost by someone in Canada who wants her back. Falcons are expensive, and Karma's told she'll have to wait and legally trap a red-tailed hawk for her own. But first, she can help deliver Stark to her home.

FALCON WILD introduces an unusual family and a girl who, while loving falconry, also wishes she was more usual. You know, having friends and stuff. All she's got is her nuisancy younger brother Gavin. They live in a National Park running a Birds of Prey Education Center, meaning they're homeschooled. So any time Karma meets someone outside the family she can't stop talking.

The adventure suddenly takes a shocking turn. A family trip derails just like that. Karma and Gavin have to grow up fast. Can they cope, save their dad, and be responsible for Stark?

This becomes a wilderness survival adventure, sprinkled with plenty of information about birds of prey, people you shouldn't trust, and why you can't depend on a GPS route finder either. The most important lesson about the wilderness is not to go out alone. My heart was in my mouth several times as I read, and the excellent descriptive writing sustains the imagined landscape in my head so well that I felt I was there with Karma and her proud falcon.

Author Terry Lynn Johnson is a member of the Outdoor Writers of Canada and one of the Conservation Officers in Ontario. She has won awards for her 2014 YA book ICE DOGS, about a 14-year-old Alaskan dogsled racer, which I am now desperate to read. If you know a young adult aged from ten to fifteen you can probably make them your new best friend by recommending this book FALCON WILD.