Wild Wings

Iona, the deuteragonist of Wild Wings, is an 11-year-old girl who is a newcomer to Callum’s village. She was raised in London by her mother but has returned to live with her grandfather. Iona bears the brunt of the dislike that was once aimed at her absent mother, so she is treated like a social outcast at school. She represents outsiders to a community in a text that emphasizes the importance of Expanding the Community. She is also viewed as eccentric because she likes to wander around barefoot in cold weather. This indirectly highlights her poverty, something that adult characters such as Mrs. McGregor notice as they begin to help care for her.

Iona also represents Mystical Connections Between Humans and Animals. Iona is attuned to nature: She can catch fish with her bare hands and notices the osprey nest long before Callum does. She is fiercely protective of the birds and swears Callum to secrecy about their nest. She also built the treehouse where she and Callum can watch the birds. Although Iona dies suddenly from a meningitis infection, making her a tragic figure, she makes Callum swear to look after Iris, thus making him the bird’s champion for the rest of the novel. She is the figure who sets him on his chivalric quest to care for Iona.

Although not a human being, Iris is an important character in the story. She is an adult osprey who nests with her mate on Callum’s property. After her leg is caught in fishing line, she is rescued by Callum and Hamish. This act of kindness creates a bond between Iris and Callum. Hamish fits her with a satellite transmitter to track her migration path. Several segments of the book are told from Iris’s point of view. Using a bird as a narrator for portions of a novel emphasizes the need to treat other species as sentient and capable of thought and feeling. This is especially critical given the book’s emphasis on the importance of respecting and preserving nature. 

Iris battles obstacles and disease on her journey. While Callum is the protagonist and chivalric hero, Iris is actually the one who goes on a dangerous quest, suggesting the relative importance of animals’ lives compared to humans’. Despite these challenges, she returns to Scotland the following spring to reunite with her mate and her human friend, Callum. Lewis uses Iris’s narrative arc to convey the importance of conservation and caring for animals.

Jeneba is a 10-year-old girl who lives in The Gambia. She enters the story when Callum sends out correspondence, hoping to find the missing Iris. Jeneba’s family recovers the bird, and she updates the anxious group in Scotland through a series of emails. Jeneba herself is facing difficulties with two broken legs after being hit by a truck. When she learns that one of her legs might need to be amputated, her new Scottish friends raise the money to bring her to England for reparative surgery. While this element of the plot reinforces racist tropes about white saviorism, Jeneba does catalyze the plot by being instrumental to the mission of saving Iris. She also has dreams to become a doctor one day.

Jeneba and Iris are often presented in parallel, suggesting Mystical Connections Between Humans and Animals. Both are suffering from leg injuries at the same time. Jeneba says that she flew from The Gambia to Scotland, just like Iris. In the novel’s final pages, she is the first person to spy the returning osprey.

Hamish is a wildlife expert from the local nature reserve. He enters the story to help rescue Iris after she becomes entangled in fishing line. Hamish is the source for most of the factual information that Callum and his friends learn about ospreys. He tells the boys about the human threats to osprey survival. Lewis therefore uses Hamish as a mouthpiece for information about animals and conservation, making the text educational for young readers. He is just as protective of the pair of ospreys on the McGregor farm as Callum and Iona are. Hamish helps Callum keep track of Iris during her travels and is also on hand to witness her return the following spring.

Rob is one of Callum’s closest friends. He is also 11 and in the same grade as his friends. Because his family is well-to-do, Rob receives an expensive bicycle for his birthday, which he shows off to Callum and Euan. His wealth is juxtaposed to the relative poverty of other characters such as Iona, thus highlighting imbalances of a need in a community that learns to come together to help each other.

He has a tendency to be brash and rude and carries his father’s dislike of the entire McNair family. Early in the novel, Rob encourages Callum to ostracize Iona, and he bullies her at school. As the story progresses, he mends his ways and comes to care about Iris as much as Callum does. He ends up donating his bike to the raffle in hopes of raising money for Jeneba’s operation. Rob’s character arc therefore reflects the text’s moral about caring for others.