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In this children’s fantasy from 1962, a mysterious and birdlike boy approaches the children of a small school. One by one, he teaches them to fly.
Simple yet deep, beautiful and bittersweet and very very magical. The flying scenes, especially the very first one in which he teaches twelve-year-old Charlotte to fly by flapping her arms, capture the intense longing for magic that some of us felt as children, along with the sense that it might just be possible.
I have a recurring dream in which I can fly, in a manner that is very much like the one depicted here. In the dream, it’s something I used to know how to do but had forgotten for years, and only just remembered. Always, I memorize how to do it, so I won’t forget again. Always, I wake up and find it almost impossible to believe that it was only a dream, that I can’t really fly, and – by far the hardest part to believe - that I have never been able to fly.
This is the first book in a loose trilogy about the sisters Emma and Charlotte Makepeace; I think all three books are standalones involving the same characters. The second, which I own but haven’t read yet, is Emma in Winter. The third book, Charlotte Sometimes, is by far the best-known of the three and is the only one still in print and easily available. It’s been a while since I read it but I do recall it being more literary and complex. That being said, I like this one more. The Summer Birds captures a very specific concept and mood, that you once could fly and could again if you can only remember how, better than anything else I’ve ever read. If you too dream of flight, you have to read this.
Used copies are very expensive on Amazon but cheaper on Abebooks and other used book finders. Or your library might have it.
The Summer Birds
Simple yet deep, beautiful and bittersweet and very very magical. The flying scenes, especially the very first one in which he teaches twelve-year-old Charlotte to fly by flapping her arms, capture the intense longing for magic that some of us felt as children, along with the sense that it might just be possible.
I have a recurring dream in which I can fly, in a manner that is very much like the one depicted here. In the dream, it’s something I used to know how to do but had forgotten for years, and only just remembered. Always, I memorize how to do it, so I won’t forget again. Always, I wake up and find it almost impossible to believe that it was only a dream, that I can’t really fly, and – by far the hardest part to believe - that I have never been able to fly.
This is the first book in a loose trilogy about the sisters Emma and Charlotte Makepeace; I think all three books are standalones involving the same characters. The second, which I own but haven’t read yet, is Emma in Winter. The third book, Charlotte Sometimes, is by far the best-known of the three and is the only one still in print and easily available. It’s been a while since I read it but I do recall it being more literary and complex. That being said, I like this one more. The Summer Birds captures a very specific concept and mood, that you once could fly and could again if you can only remember how, better than anything else I’ve ever read. If you too dream of flight, you have to read this.
Used copies are very expensive on Amazon but cheaper on Abebooks and other used book finders. Or your library might have it.
The Summer Birds
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