Talon, Come Fly With Me
Book 1 in the TALON Series
by Gigi Sedlmayer
About the Book:
Title: Talon, Come Fly With Me (Book 1 in the TALON series) | Author: Gigi Sedlmayer | Publisher: Aurora House | Pages: 238 | Genre: Children's Adventure/Survival Story
Book Description:
Nine-year-old Matica lives in a remote little village on a dry plateau in the Andes of Peru. She moved to Peru when she was five with her Australian missionary and schoolteacher parents. Because Matica is trapped in the body of a two year old, her growth handicap has caused her to be rejected by the local people and they would not accept her into their community or allow her to play with the children.
With patience and a sense of adventure Matica befriends a pair of condors. A strong bond and love develops between them.
Matica rescues the egg the condors, Tamo and Tima, are trying to protect from poachers and nurtures it to hatching. The egg hatches on her tenth birthday and she names the new fledging Talon.
Many adventures unfold, including her finally being accepted into the local community.
This is the beginning of many incredible adventures with Talon and Matica. It is a story of hope, determination and love.
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My Review
Gigi effectively creates a blend of reality and fiction with her first book in the TALON series. Set in Peru, we learn facts about the country and its people, as well as information about the endangered condors, with a good amount of fantasy included. Gigi successfully mixes facts with fiction in a believable way, which allows children to learn while they imagine and dream.
Meet Matica, a girl with a growth handicap who has been rejected by the people her missionary parents are serving. Come away to her world where she finds friends in the condors and learns to not only accept her handicap, but also to celebrate it. In the process, she also learns to forgive.
Talon, Come Fly With Me, is a story that will touch the hearts and minds of parents and their children. It takes us back to living simply, enjoying nature and caring for wildlife. It reminds us to be kind and to accept people's differences. It also reminds us that we learn through experiences and that telling and listening to life stories is part of learning too.
About the Author:
Gigi Sedlmayer
Gisela (Gigi) Sedlmayer was born on 19 May 1944 in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin in Germany.
Her family escaped to the West just before the infamous wall went up. They moved around in Germany, wherever her dad got work. That meant she had to change schools 9 times! In the end she stopped making friends for fear that she would lose them again.
Finally they settled in Munich where Gigi studied architectural drafting and met Albert in 1965, marrying in December 1967. She worked as a civil draftsperson in various private consultancies in Munich.
Since her uncle was a writer, she tried to write short animal stories herself. Nothing further came of it, but she developed a love for the written word and started to consume books.
In May 1975, Gigi and her husband moved to New Zealand. Because of language challenges, she started a handcraft business. As a specialty, she made colourful parrots in several sizes of which she sold thousands in a few years.
In 1988, they decided to adopt and became adoptive parents of twin girls the year after. They lived in New Zealand for eighteen years and moved to Australia in September 1992.
Two years later Gigi was diagnosed with cancer. After operations and radiation, she withdrew, thinking that she would probably soon be dead, like her friend who died of cancer, but her two little girls gave her the courage to keep going. After a few years, still among the living, her brain started to work again, so she thought, 'Get a grip on yourself and do something good with your life'.
She remembered the time she wrote short stories and got inspired again, seeing her husband Albert writing the story of their adoption. Her English became increasingly better so she pressed on to develop her creative writing.
Albert taught her how to use a computer and she wrote many short stories. She entered them in competitions and often got very good reports back, which gave her confidence to go on writing. One day the idea for the TALON series came to her and she spent the next several years bringing the story and the characters to life.
She now loves writing and spends most of her time at the computer, developing new story lines. She also loves travelling, 4x4 touring, swimming, gardening, handcrafting, reading, fossicking and enjoys good adventure DVD's or going to the movies.
Disclosure: I received a free digital copy of this book for my honest review.
