Fly Into Exciting Adventure Presented by Gigi Sedlmayer!

Image by law_keven via Flickr

...He's not built for hunting and killing
 like eagles are. He’s a scavenger,
a cleaner in the wild... he can eat as much
as forty per cent of his own body
 weight....His body is a glossy black with
 wing covers of ivory grey.
The secondary and inner pri-mary feathers
 are ashy white and tipped in black,
 forming large white areas on the huge wings
 when seen from above.
The condor’s neck and head is red to blackish
 with no feathers. The male has
 a black, large, fleshy wattle over the beak,
 called a caruncle and he’s designed for
 soaring high up in the sky, as high
as 8000 metres (p.36)

Talon, 
  come fly with me

By Gigi Sedlmayer












Gigi Sedlmayer has provided us with a novel that is perfect for anybody from 9 to 99...and even younger children will enjoy hearing it read to them, since some parts may not be easy enough to read on their own. Certainly any grade school child will be intrigued by the main character's best friend! Let me tell you more...


Matica was a very special daughter in a missionary family that had moved to the small remote village of Pucara in Peru. Matica was special because, although she was much older, she had never grown more than, say, the size of a 2-year-old. When her family moved, Matica discovered that the native Indians had never seen an individual such as she and they avoided her almost completely. Although Matica loved her family, she missed having someone to play with. She began by watching the many beautiful birds surrounding her home, especially admiring the dragonfly and hummingbird.

But then she met two other birds--birds that were bigger and quite strange to see--but Matica thought they were beautiful! She talked about her new friends with her brother Aikon:


'Stretching her hand to tap it with her finger, she wrinkled her forehead and said impulsively, really falling into self-pity now, ‘Some animals are so small some humans are as well,’ she grumbled very softly. ‘But others can be so big.’
"Aikon looked at her seriously for a few seconds, not cracking a smile. Finally he said, ‘You mean your condors, Tamo and Tima, and you as well?’
‘Hmm, big, Tamo and Tima, small, me.’ She sighed. ‘I feel smaller than them. Why do I have this growth problem? Why can’t I be like you – normal?’

When Matica got discouraged, she would talk to her mother. One day, her mother told her she would some day come to understand and see the advantage of being so small...

The female produces only one egg every second year.
They nest on ledges amongst steep cliffs
 which are sometimes easy to get to,
often very ex-posed. The young will leave
 their parents after the second year,
 when they will then have another egg,
 but the young won’t mature until their
eighth year and are then ready to lay their own eggs.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Condor_flying_over_the_Colca_canyon_in_Peru.jpg

Matica had worked hard to become friends with the condors. She would carry dead animals to feed them and spend time talking to them...finally, Tamo had come down and started taking the food and eating...Then Matica realized a wonderful thing--Tamo seemed to understand what she said to him and he started to make sounds in response. But then one day Matica heard shots and saw Tamo! She ran toward where he was but then had to stop and hide. She had seen these men, poachers, last year!

In Matica's mind, there was no choice, she had to help, save Tamo and Tima, as well as their egg! But how?

This evolves into a wonderful adventure story that is so exciting that the entire village gets involved!

You can too...you'll read how the egg was protected by its parents, and then how Tamo chose to ensure its safety... What's more, you'll meet Talon, their new son! But, most importantly, readers will learn how Matica came to realize her advantage to being different in size! A truly remarkable, heartwarming story that children and adults both will find an exciting adventure!

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