The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day

The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day is a historical novel by the American writer Scott O'Dell, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1975. It is set in Europe in the sixteenth century and written for young readers.

Tom Barton works with his uncle Jack on a boat whose cargo is not always what it appears to be. The two of them are smugglers by trade and by temperament, and the skills they need are the ones the book is built around: reading the weather, knowing which official can be talked round and which harbour will ask no questions. The trade they have taken on this time is more serious than the usual run, because the material they are moving through the ports of Europe is forbidden, and the men who enforce the prohibition are not merely interested in the customs duty. The novel is about a young man learning the family business and discovering that the law is not always the same thing as what is right.

O'Dell wrote historical fiction for children for decades and won awards for it, and this book belongs to the tradition in which a young character is given a part in an event much larger than himself.