Stand on the Sky by Erin Bow

Aisulu is a Mongolian child who follows her nomad family from one camp to another depending on the season.  She's best friends with her brother and loves her parents.  But her brother is ill and doesn't want her to tell anyone...

HMH Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published March 5th.

She and her brother decide to ride up to where the herd is right now.  When they get there, it's gone.  So they decide to go a bit higher to see if they can see where they've gone.  When they look back down the mountainside, they see a blizzard coming towards them.  They can't get off the mountain soon enough so they look for shelter.  They survive the blizzard.  Then they notice an eagle eating the birds that froze to death.  Her brother is determined to catch it.  Instead he breaks his leg.  She gets help and takes him and the eagle down to their village.  Her uncle says the eagle won't be able to fly anymore and he kills it.  She hates that.  Then she remembers it had a baby in it's nest.

When she tells her father about her brother limping, they take him to hospital in town.  It takes forever for her to hear anything from them.  In the meantime, she's gone after the baby eagle.  It's almost dead, but she takes it home and asks her aunt what to feed it.  Then she becomes the mouse procurer and spends most of her time finding more food for it.

Then she finds her parents need to take her brother to a much bigger hospital.  He has cancer.  They will have to sell all they own.  But she has another plan.  There is an eagle contest coming up.  She'll fly her eagle then.  But she's young, she has no fancy clothes and she's female.  In her part of the world that's a man's sport.  But she's determined...

I really enjoyed the tale of the eagle and girl learning to trust each other and work together.  I found this to be a very enjoyable read.