Incident at Hawk's Hill
Published 1995 · 207 pages · 56,925 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Children's Literature, Historical Fiction, Coming-of-Age
How hard is Incident at Hawk's Hill to read?
Incident at Hawk's Hill scores 21 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 24 out of 100
- Eckert writes plain prose for young readers, with some naturalist terms for prairie animals and plants. It sits close to Judy Blume in accessibility, with a little more specialized nature vocabulary.
- Sentence structure: 24 out of 100
- Sentences are short to medium and direct, with straightforward description of the badger's hunting and the search. The structure is closer to Anne Frank's diary than to any literary prose.
- Abstraction: 24 out of 100
- The story rests on concrete events: a lost boy, a den, a search party. Ideas about family and nature arise through action, much like Asterix's adventure.
- Information density: 27 out of 100
- The book moves at a comfortable pace across about 57,000 words, with natural-history detail on badgers and the prairie. Little demands close tracking.
- Narrative indirection: 20 out of 100
- Events are told plainly, with the badger's and the family's views stated clearly. Readers infer very little beyond the emotional weight of the bond.
- Symbolic density: 25 out of 100
- The den, the prairie and the hawks carry some meaning, but the story stays a literal survival tale. It is lighter than To Kill a Mockingbird's mockingbird imagery.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- The narration is earnest throughout, in the manner of Anne Frank's diary, with no gap between what is said and what is meant.
- Resolution withholding: 22 out of 100
- The plot resolves clearly, with the search and Ben's fate settled. Only the question of what the boy owes the badger lingers.
- Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
- The book alternates between Ben's underground life and the family's search, in a linear sequence. It is simpler than Gatsby's retrospection.
How Incident at Hawk's Hill is regarded
Incident at Hawk's Hill holds a literary regard score of 39 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.