At least Trumpet of the Swan was fun. This one, just kinda dull. It’s juvenile fiction, a realistic portrayal of the life of swans. When the story opens, the parent swans are just arriving in the far north where they live on the tundra with countless other migratory birds, all there to raise families. The swans hatch five cygnets, main character turns out to be the largest male and the most successful, as most of his siblings one by one meet varied fates. Caught by a predatory bird, shot at by humans, etc. The young swans grow up, learn to fly and follow their parents on migration south when the time comes. The story shows how they live, seeking shelter and safe bodies of water to land on in their travels, what they eat, how they court when mating season comes around again. So many threats to the swans- skuas attack the young ones in the arctic, hunters accost them on their travels, and at one point a snake tried to drag a female underwater. Foxes always a threat. There are lovely and peaceful moments too, and incidents showing how dedicated the swans are to their flock and their mates, protecting and staying by each other. In the end, our young male has found a mate and raised his own young, takes over the flock to lead the new generation back south. I’m sure this book would have satisfied my desire to know more about animal behavior when I was a kid, but it just didn’t do much for me now. Even the scenes where the swans were attacked by predators failed to have much tension- just so matter-of-fact. Looks like the author has written similar books about a moose, a raccoon, sea otter, whale, and some others. But I’m not really sure if I want to look for any of them. This was a thrift store find for me.
Rating: 2/5
64 pages, 1973
One Response
What a beautiful puzzle! I was particularly struck by the way it changed so drastically each time you focused on another main color. I’m working on another puzzle right now that is proving more difficult than I thought it would be…but then that seems to be happening more and more often these days. 🙂