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I'm a little late, even though this was my nomination, due to a crisis at work. I won't attempt in a single post to address all the very thoughtful comments, but I would say this:
I would be terrified to take a peek at my 13 year old self. I was stagnating in a parochial school, just figuring out how to live in a closet, and had severe anger problems as a result. I did what I had to do to survive in that environment, but I would not be proud of most of it now.
I was lucky enough to escape into books outside of the required reading, which did not seem to be so readily available to Rebanks in his youth.
While I am not generally a fan of the white male son vs. father narrative (because it has been done a million times), this one did strike me. It is good to see it come full circle.
I appreciated too the almost umbilical connection of the man and his animals. You see it in his sheep and his dog Floss. I still follow him on Twitter and Instagram (where he posts almost all photos and conservation information) and have seen Floss have another littler of puppies and be retired from fieldwork. I suspect he will mourn as much on the day that dog dies as he did when his father did.
I read this and H is for Hawk in the same year, and both were in my top 10, though Macdonald ended up higher in the list. I feel like Rebanks' book is a photo album where Hawk is more a snapshot. I loved both for what they were.
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