The Summer of the Swans

This month I read a classic. The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byers was published in 1970 and won the Newbery Medal in 1971. I read this book when I was 14 and was moved by it. In fact, I did my first ever oral report on this book and died a pair of my tennis sneakers puce. To find out why, you’ll have to read the book…

Summer of the Swans is a coming of age mid-grade novel. Sara is 14 and feels awkward and unhappy. Her mother is dead, her older sister is better than her in every way, her father is gone, her brother, Charlie, suffered brain damage as a child, and to top it all off, her sneakers are the wrong color! Sara has more to deal with than most 14 year olds and she knows it. She doesn’t appreciate the home her aunt provides, her needy younger brother, or her sneakers. Sara spends a lot of time complaining and feeling sorry for herself, until one day when Charlie gets lost in the woods. Losing Charlie changes everything for Sara. She realizes the importance of family. She learns that she can be wrong about things and that she’s too harsh on people. In a nutshell, Sara goes from an ugly duckling to a swan.

Summer of the Swans is a beautiful story. I recommend this book to 7th graders.

List of Recommended Books by Grade:

2^nd grade –

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Miss Holly Is Too Jolly, by Dan Gutman

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

3^rd grade –

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

 

4^th grade –

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden

The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

The Golly Whopper Games by Jody Feldma

5^th grade –

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Benjamin Pratt & The Keeper of the School by Andrew Clements

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

 

6^th grade –

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Dewey, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

 

7^th grade and up –

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byers

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Pendragon Book One: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Seventeen Second Miracle, by Jason F. Wright