Customer Reviews

The Summer of the Swans

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(76)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

This book was about a girl named Sara, who's brother Charlie is mentally retarted. Sara, Charlie, and their sister Wanda, all live with their Aunt Willie. Charlie loves to go to the lake and watch the swans. So, Sara takes him one day, but it starts to get dark,and he doesn't want to go home. That night as Charlie lies in bed, he hears the swans. He follows them. It is dark outside, and he gets lost. The next morning Sara, Wanda, and Aunt Willie realize Charlie is missing, so the town starts out to look for him. Will they find him? I couldn't put this book down. I just wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

The Summer of the Swans, by Betsy Byars, is a heartwarming story about the longest day in the life of a fourteen year old . A wonderfull theme emerges from the story that every child should hear.
The story is about a day in Sara's fourteenth summer. She had spend the whole summer feeling sorry for herself. She only saw that she had enormous feet, and impulsive body, and ridiculous hair. She had deep envy for her older sister and really had very low self esteem. She spent her time crying and feeling sorry for herself. Children will likely relate to the exact thing Sara is going through, especially those who are coming of age.
Everything changes for Sara when her mentally handicapped brother, Charlie, comes up missing. During her frantic search for her brother, she forgets her own problems and focuses her energy on something else.
The theme emerges from her discovery. During the worst day of her life, she learns what it means to care more about someone else then yourself. This theme could really change readers way of thinking. It is something that she didn't understand completely until that day. Maybe children will learn the lesson without having to go through such a trauma as Sara's.
Summer of the Swans is a wonderful, heartwarming story that is well deserving of the Newbery award. The characters are identifiable and there is a theme that every child needs to hear and take practice in.

"The Summer of the Swans" is about the day when Sara Godfrey's mentally handicapped brother Charlie disappears after visiting the swans at the lake. Nobody is sure what happened to him, but everyone expects the worst because it's not typical for Charlie to have run off alone.

Sara feels responsible for losing her brother since she's the closest to him. Aunt Willie also blames herself because she had promised Sara and Charlie's dead mother she would protect him--and now he's gone.

Soon a search party gathers and everyone begins to look for the missing ten-year-old.

Even though "The Summer of the Swans" is primarily about the search for Charlie, Sara's family life begins to open up and we discover the different relationships she has with her simple younger brother Charlie, her overbearing aunt Willie, her older sister Wanda, and her remote father.

The recommended age group for this book is 8 - 12, but I would recommend it to anyone who has a mentally handicapped family member or can somehow relate with the story. It's easy reading and moves along rather quickly--the chapters are short and there are a few illustrations by Ted CoConis.

"The Summer of the Swans" won the Newbery Award in 1971. The book was later made into a TV movie in 1974 (aka "Sara's Summer of the Swans"), which I never saw because it was made before I was born.

I also recommend reading "The Falcon's Wing" by Dawna Lisa Buchanan (mentally handicapped family member).

The main character of this novel is Sarah, a girl in her early teens who is experiencing a "coming of age" summer. When the novel begins, Sarah is at an ebb in her young life--she feels self-conscious about her physical appearance (without tangents on breast size or her menstral cycle (thank you), making this a book very appropriate for a classroom) and her inability to interact in a meaningful way with the two most important women (read: role models) in her life--her older sister and her Aunt Willie, who is raising her. It is during this coming of age process that Sarah's younger, mentally handicapped brother, Charlie wanders out of the backyard in the middle of the night and gets lost in the woods. While the plot is relatively straight forward--Charlie gets lost and Sarah participates in a search to find him--this novel is an good one because of the excellent development of the main character.

It's about a girl named Sara who lives with her Aunt Willie, sister and brother. Her brother's name is Charlie. When he was little he had a high fever and since then he has not talked or laughed. The only thing Sara does is take care of Charlie. One day Sara takes Charlie to see the swans at the pond. Charlie likes the swans a lot. Then at night he goes to find them. Instead he gets lost in the forest. Then the next day they find out that Charlie is missing. So Sara goes to look for him. Will Sara find Charlie? If you want to find out read the book.
I will give this book 4 stars. It was really interesting when Charlie got lost. It was so exciting that I could feel what Sara was feeling when Charlie got lost. You can see what is happening, the author really explained it well. It makes you want to read more when you stop reading. I would pick this book as one of my favorites. READ IT NOW!

Gladys Garcia
Madison, Wi.

The Summer of the Swans took place in the city and in Aunt Willie's house. Sara, Charlie and Wanda are all brothers and sisters.Their mom died six years ago. Aunt Willie took care of them. She loves them in her own way. Sometimes she is awfully rude and loud and mean. Sara loves the swans and takes Charlie to the pond Charlie likes them so much that he runs out of home in the middle of the night but he gets lost in the forest. It makes them difficult to find him because when he was a little kid. He had two illness that afected his hearing and talking. He thinks he is three years old but he is really ten.
I give this book 4 stars out of 5, because it was interesting and readable. I really recommend this book, even though it is really sad, yet happy. If you read this book you will understand how Sara feels. I did not like when they were in the forest looking for Charlie. The story got boring, it had too many chapters about the forest. It was mostly the ending I didn't like. I couldn't put it down and I bet you won't be able to put it down either.

Yadira
Madison, WI.

Ever heard of Betsy Byars. Well she is a great author who wrote Summer of the Swans. It is a story about a girl who is self-willed.
The main character in this book is Sara and her self-pity,"i have the biggest feet in the school." Charlie is her brother wo is mentally handicap and can't speak, Wanda,her sister, who she thinks is a prefectionist, Aunt Willie, their gardian for the time being, Mary, sara's best friend and most helpful,"Mom, I am going to help Sara look for Charlie," and Joe Melby,aka fink.
The story takes place in West Virginia in the summer at their house and lake There are two plots or problems in the story. One is Sara's fellings about herself and the other one is that charlie becomes missing in the middle of the book,"Sara, have you seen Charlie." and they can't find him.
The symbolism is explainable. The symbol is a swan. It is a swan because at the beginning of the book Sara feels bad herself and at the end feels good about herself. This is related to a swan because when swans are young the're not that pretty but when they grow up they're beatiful..
I really liked this book because it teaches you about life. I would reccomend this book to 6th through 8th graders because the problems that are in this book would be reccognozed by these ages. I really hope you read this book because it makes you look at life in a different angle.

This has been one of my favorite books for years. Sara lived with her bossy aunt Willie, her beautiful older sister, and her retarded brother Charlie. She had a difficult time getting along with her family and herself. She was happy one minute, discontent the next. No one sympathized with her. One sleepy summer night, Charlie disappeared in search of the swans he and Sara fed the day before. The family realized how much they really love him, even if he was annoying sometimes. Read the book to see if he's found. Teens should read this because they can identify with Sara's dissatisfaction and conflicting feelings. The author's writing style is spare but enjoyable. Just buy it!

Sara Godfrey is a fourteen year-old girl whose mother is dead; she also has an absentee father and a mentally slow little brother. She thinks she has big feet and that she is unattractive. In a nutshell, her life is unlivable. Sara, her brother Charlie and her sister Wanda live with their Aunt Willie who worries incessantly about everything and drives Sara crazy and she is slightly jealous of her sister, even though she would never admit it. However, she is sweet on her little brother. Even though Charlie never talks to Sara, she knows without a doubt that he always listens to her. He is the only one who ever does. Anyone who gives him a hard time has to answer to her.
One afternoon Sara takes Charlie to see the swans that have flown in and settled on the pond out side of their neighborhood. He is so enamored with them that he does not want to leave when it starts to get dark. Sara drags him, kicking the entire way home. The next morning everyone in the house wakes to a missing Charlie. Sara's world comes crashing down around her.
During her crusade to find her brother, Sara grows up. She learns to take life around her more seriously and to stop wallowing in self-pity. She realizes that life is not always easy to figure out and that we are all along on a different ride to the same destination. She even makes an unlikely friend along the way.
This book is a good one to give to any teenager going through the "oh, whoa is me" phase. It teaches us to open our eyes to the lives of others and realize that everyone has problems, some of which are worse than others, and that things usually work out. Nevertheless, even when they do not work out, we have to pick ourselves up and move on because we only get one go around in this ride we call life.

Everyone sould read this book. There is this boy named Charlie who was ill. He could not talk. I felt by for him. You might think the beginning is boring but once you get into it is not so boring.In the middle of the book Charlie got lost. I wonted to keep on reading but it was bedtime. In the end of the story they found Charlie. I loved this book.