Ali and the Golden Eagle

The story “Ali and the Golden Eagle” is told by an American named Wayne Grover. Mr. Grover tells of his adventures in Saudi Arabia and how he meets Ali, a village boy who's eager to try new things and face whatever life throws at him. When Mr. Grover visits Ali's village deep in a canyon away from civilization, Ali, his father, and the men of the village show him their art of falconry. Mr. Grover then helps Ali capture a golden eagle—something that had never been done. This book is about his adventures with Ali and his eagle and how he watches Ali come into manhood.

Great book. Talks about falconry, would be gret for an apprentice. Great book. Great book. Talks about falconry, would be gret for an apprentice.

Good children's book if studying Islam

I read this with my kids as part of our curriculum from Sonlight. At that point, I really didn't know anything about Saudi Arabia, apart from some hazy images drawn from Aladdin and Sinbad children's books.I found this story to be well-written and exciting, as well as illuminating a culture, now rare, in a part of the world most outsiders do not know. We tend to think that all Middle Eastern or Muslim cultures are identical and confuse the cultures of different countries with that of the others. This book helps combat that ignorance.Now, several years after reading the book, my family hosts college students from Saudi Arabia, and we have learned much more about the culture. We had recently read this book when we met our first student. Because of Ali and the Golden Eagle, we knew a little bit about his culture, even though the culture as described in the book was becoming rare even then. This is where the modern culture came from, and can explain some of the underlying features and differences that still exist: while people no longer have to ask the head of their families to travel outside of their home area, they may still turn to family heads when having difficult decisions to make. Hunting using birds of prey is still important, and some of the other traditions featured in the book are still practiced. It is not quite the same view you would get if you were introduced to the culture by a member of it, but it still is a relatively unbiased look at rural Saudi Arabia as it was 30-40 years ago.

I loved reading this book very much. It has good sentence fluency. It's very nicely written. I am just 9 years old. I got interested because of the cover, to tell you the truth. I always liked to look at pictures of eagles. This book got me thinking and imagining. I didn't know much about Arabia. So I learned so much about that country. There were moments I thought the book is going to describe something terrible. My heart beat hard every time Mr. Wayne rappelled down into the valley. It is a great thrilling book. I like Ali. Wish the book had a picture of the eagle, Ali and Mr. Wayne. Great book.I typed this up for my son ... my.star

This was a school read, so I wasn't thrilled with it at first. But as I read it, I began to really like it. I enjoyed Wayne Grover's writing style, and the description of Samson, the golden eagle. There was a bit too much of the whole "May Allah bless you..." junk, but overall I loved it!

Amazing book can’t wait to read it to my son.