Book Review : 'Talon the Falcon' by Deepak Dalal

'Talon the Falcon' by Deepak Dalal is an interesting story. It basically, gets on the plot, almost immediately. The story is about Shikar, a squirrel, who can speak the bird language and also about a falcon, named Talon.

As the story begins, you are introduced to Shikar, who has no clue, why almost all his buddies have suddenly disappeared from the place called as Rose Garden. The mynas, bulbuls, koels, and a few others are all missing. He spends the rest of his time, looking for them, when he comes upon a couple of squirrels, who are his best friends.

Both of them explain to Shikar that they would be going away too, because they are now under imminent danger. And then they point towards another bird, the falcon. The falcons are scary birds, which fly from above and carry away the little ones. That is the reason that all the birds have fled.

Shikar, who stayed on suddenly came face to face with the falcon. It was a huge bird and had huge wings, a curved beak and intense eyes. It looked chilling and ready to kill. But it had a deep voice, and a sad tone. He sang the words of a bird, which was trapped. Shikar noticed then, that the bird was in a cage.

With that the whole scare, which he had suddenly felt was lifted. Immediately, he felt sorry for the bird, and made his way over to talk to the falcon. He realised that it would be easy for him to chew away the twine, what bound him and he could fly away to freedom.

But the falcon would have to promise that he would fly away and not hurt anyone. The falcon who heard Shikar’s words, immediately agreed. But, suddenly there was some noise and Shikar ran away. The people of the house at the child was promising his father that he would handle the falcon and make sure he took good care of it, as it was his responsibility.

By that evening birds came back to the garden, as they had heard that the falcon was caged. The birds are spoken to by Shikar, and though reluctantly at first, most birds agreed to Shikar’s plan of freeing, Talon, the falcon. So, Shikar has plans to chew out the twine of the cage and his friends, who would watch over and make sure that he could chew it out.

So, does he manage to do this? Would no one from the house notice? And would the falcon keep his promise and not hurt a single bird or animal from the Rose Garden? Read up, ‘Talon the Falcon’ to find out more. This book is about bravery, kindness, and doing what must be done, for the goodness of all.

The songs in the book are pleasingly written, and all in the right places. It also has wonderful illustrations by Lavanya Naidu, to help keep the story going. Overall, it was a neat book and it had all the best notes for children and a few adults, as well.

You can Buy the Book, right here.