Books like Song of the Swallows
By Leo Politi
For the kid who waits eagerly for something to come back every year, this book turns that same feeling of anticipation into a quiet, hopeful story. Gentle, hopeful, quietly reverent, rooted in place and tradition
A quiet, watchful girl in London who studies a robin on her windowsill grows up to travel to the forests of Gombe, Tanzania, where she spends years observing chimpanzees and eventually fights to save them from extinction.
A grandfather leads a lively chase through town to track down a bee tree after his granddaughter Mary Ellen grows bored with her reading, gathering half the town along the way.
A six-year-old boy spends his days in his grandfather Luis's towering garden, learning bird names, playful expressions, and reading and writing from a grandfather who never had schooling of his own.
A joyful look at the natural world welcoming a new baby, as the moon pulls the tides, rain falls, and word of the coming birth spreads from animal to animal across the whole earth.
A boy travels north with his grandfather, Moshom, to see the trapline where Moshom grew up, asking again and again, "Is this your trapline?" as he imagines the life his grandfather once lived there.
A day in the life of family and friends unfolds from morning to night, moving from a tiny shell on the beach to the wide, darkening sunset sky.
A boy named Rudy longs to fly more than anything, so he adopts a wild hawk, hoping their bond will somehow let him join it in the sky.
A curious fox named Marco joins a ship captained by a deer and crewed by pigeons, sailing off in search of a wondrous island and answers to his endless questions.
A little girl with a wobbly loose tooth runs around her city block to tell everyone the big news, and discovers her neighbors carry whole countries with them.
When the first snowflakes fall, grown-ups like the postman, the farmer, and the policeman's wife hurry to prepare, while the children run outside to catch lacy snowflakes on their tongues.
A discarded robot with a broken heart gives shelter to an exhausted bluebird in the empty space where his heart used to be, and carries her south with the last of his failing strength.
A girl who feels closer to horses than to people follows a wild herd across the plains, choosing their freedom over the life her village expects for her.
