SWALLOWS SWIRL

Seasons and swallows whirl through a year in a child’s rural life.

Favoring denim overalls and long brown hair with bangs, the light-skinned narrator romps as the swallows’ lives unfold. A small barn, house, and henhouse are the backdrop for the changes that 12 months bring to rolling farmland. Vivid language enlivens this quiet appreciation of avian life. In spring, the swallows’ nests “bloom with hungry chicks, their buttercup-bright mouths open wide”; the acrobatic birds “rocket,” “flit,” “slip,” “skim,” and “loop-the-loop.” The narrator, accompanied by a delighted dog, races downhill like the birds. In summer, dressed in a pink-checked swimsuit, the child jumps through a sprinkler while swallows fly through the spray, “their blue backs glittering.” In autumn the narrator is “cozy-sweatered”; the idling school bus “grumbles.” Winter brings snow and chickadees while the swallows are far south. In early spring, the “snuggle-sweatered” child’s rainboots pinch. Finally, the swallows reappear: “Their sharp wings flash like scissors as they slice through the sky,” and the narrator, “new-booted and sweater-free,” welcomes them. A refrain—“days slip by”—conveys the passage of time. Graceful barn swallows, with curved, tapering wings, pointed split tails, and aerial acrobatics, are a gift to a skilled illustrator, and Mason delivers. Compositions are varied, with close-ups and middle-distance portrayals, while the birds’ migration offers sky-view perspectives. Against a subdued palette, the blue swallows shimmer.

Deftly intertwines observations on nature with moments in a child’s everyday life.