By ITCado LLC
Children’s stories often begin in distant kingdoms or enchanted forests. Nini & Conner: The Tale of the Hawk begins instead in a backyard in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and that choice is exactly the point.
Written by V. Lambinicio Jr., the book follows 8-year-old Nini and her 4-year-old brother Connor as they try to protect a group of squirrels from a red-tailed hawk that has begun circling their garden. What unfolds is not a fantasy quest, but a small-scale domestic adventure rooted in family life, research at the local library, and the surprising bravery of a household cat. The inspiration, the author says, was disarmingly simple.
“Actually, it’s very simple,” Lambinicio said in a recent interview. “My boss told me she was worried about the squirrels in her garden because a hawk was lurking by. From hearing that, I said there’s a story there.”
From that real-life anecdote, Lambinicio built a fictional world that remains grounded in reality. Fredericksburg is real. The white house that anchors the story is based on a real home, relocated in the narrative to protect privacy. The hawk itself, a red-tailed hawk, is the kind of predator many suburban families might spot perched on a fence.
“It’s somewhat a mix,” the author said of fact and imagination. “The incident was real. Everything else is imaginary. But writers tend to write about the things they know.”
In Nini & Conner: The Tale of the Hawk, Nini feeds the squirrels in her yard, especially one named Jack, who once suffered an injury and earned her special affection. When the hawk begins hunting in the area, fear enters the story as a familiar childhood emotion. The siblings are frightened, yet determined. With the help of their parents and aunt, they research ways to discourage hawks without harming them. A scarecrow is erected. A wooden owl is placed strategically. The family consults books. They problem-solve together.
Eventually, the unlikely hero emerges: Juno, the family’s orange tabby cat, who barrels into the hawk mid-hunt and disrupts the attack. No animals are gravely harmed, but the confrontation underscores the book’s emotional core: loyalty, protection, and the bonds between children and the creatures they care about.
“One of the things I made sure of in the book is that no animals are going to get hurt,” Lambinicio said. “There’s a fight involved, but I wasn’t describing the hawk as hurt, more shocked. Juno fits the bill of a sudden and surprising hero.”
Juno, he added, is inspired by his own cat, though his real-life pet has never charged at a hawk. “Cats are usually laid back,” he said, “but suddenly they can surprise you.”
The choice to tell the story from a child’s perspective was deliberate. While the premise could have veered into fable or anthropomorphic fantasy, Lambinicio resisted.
“If you’re talking about squirrels and a red-tailed hawk, then it’s definitely more towards the children’s side,” he said. “I wanted it to be a child’s adventure. I didn’t want the hawk to take the form of a bad guy in some humanized way. I wanted children to see a story they themselves can find themselves in.”
That commitment to ordinariness, to a recognizable town, a supportive family, a backyard many readers might have, gives the book its quiet strength. In an era when many children’s stories lean heavily on spectacle or sparse, image-driven storytelling, Nini & Conner unfolds as what the author calls a “full-blown story.”
“When I was a child myself, and I was reading stories, they were full-blown stories,” he said. “Nowadays, most of them are visual, with a few sentences. There aren’t many real stories out there.”
Here, the narrative lingers. Nini’s compassion toward Jack becomes the emotional thread. Although Lambinicio insists the squirrel was not originally intended as a symbol, he acknowledges that Jack ultimately reflects Nini’s character.
“If you take the story as a whole,” he said, “Jack is more like a symbol of Nini’s character, being caring and compassionate.”
That compassion is central to the book’s message, though Lambinicio is careful not to frame the story as overtly moralistic.
“It wasn’t really my first intent to convey values,” he said. “My intent was to give them a story that’s not based on fantasy, just an ordinary town, an ordinary family, an ordinary garden. There can be an adventure lurking around anywhere.”
Still, themes of fear, courage, and protection naturally emerge. The children are afraid, but they are not reckless. They do not seek to harm the hawk. Instead, they try to keep it away, to coexist while safeguarding what they love.
“I wanted them to see that you can be scared of something,” Lambinicio said, “but if you decide on something you feel you need to do, even if it’s simple, you can do it.”
In that sense, the book encourages empathy not only toward vulnerable animals like Jack, but also toward the natural order represented by the hawk. The predator is not demonized; it is simply acting according to instinct. The children’s response is measured, humane, and collaborative.
For young readers, that balance may be the story’s most resonant achievement. Adventure does not require dragons. Courage does not require violence. And magic, as Lambinicio puts it, can rise from “ordinary life.”
In a quiet garden in Fredericksburg, beneath the shadow of a hawk’s wings, two children discover that bravery can look like research at the library, teamwork at the dinner table, and, sometimes, a cat leaping into action at just the right moment.
With Nini & Conner: The Tale of the Hawk, Lambinicio delivers a gentle yet engaging tale that reminds readers, young and old, that wonder often waits just outside the back door.
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To learn more: https://www.niniandconnor.com/
