The Trumpet of the Swan

Rating:
Summary: Another Very Good Book For Kids by E.B. White
Review: This is the third book by E.B. White that I have read to my daughters (ages 6 & 8), and they have greatly enjoyed all of them (the other two of course were "Charlotte's Web" and "Stuart Little"). It is the story of a young trumpeter swan named Louis who is born with a birth defect in that he can't talk. It seems verbal communication is a great part of a swan's courting ritual, and since Louis can't use his voice to say "Ko-Hoh", his mother and father believe this will be a great disadvantage for him when he gets older and wants to attract a mate. At great personal risk and dishonor, Louis' father, the old cob, sets out to help his son by stealing a brass trumpet from a music store so that his son will have a voice. The old cob is a very funny character. He is always making all of these long winded speeches, and his wife has to cut him off or he would go on forever. The beginning of the book reads likes a nature lesson, and you learn all about swans raising cygnets (baby swans) in their natural inhabitant, but then in the later chapters it turns into an adventure story as Louis sets out on his own. To repay his father for his sacrifice, Louis goes to school to learn to read and write so that he can communicate with humans, and then he sets out to pay off his father's debt and to restore his family name. With the help of a young boy named Sam Beaver who had become friends with this family of swans back in Canada, Louis gets a job as a bugler at a summer camp Sam was working at. Sam knows a lot about nature and wants to work in a zoo when he grows up. At camp KooKooskoos Louis makes many friends, and learns to play revelry and taps on his bugle, and earn a little bit of money as well. At the end of the summer when the camp closes Louis moves to Boston to get a second job working on the swan boats at the Boston Common. (You are greatly reminded at this point of "Make Way for Ducklings" which takes place in the same atmosphere.) The man who owns the swan boats is very nice to Louis and puts him up at the Ritz Hotel for a while. After Sam returns and helps Louis again by surgically separating one of his webbed feet, the quality of Louis' trumpet playing greatly improves. Louis then starts to become well known, and is offered a job as a jazz musician in Philadelphia. He moves out to Philadelphia and stays at the Philadelphia Zoo for a while. It is the custom of the head man at this zoo however to clip a wing of any bird that comes there that they want to keep. This prevents them from flying away. In order for Louis to keep his freedom and not to have his wing clipped he has to agree to play a free concert every Sunday for the people of Philadelphia. By fate it is here in Philadelphia at the zoo, that he meets his true love Serena and woes her with his trumpet playing. After earning enough money to pay off his father's debt, they move back to Montana to start a family. While the book was great there was one minor negative thing I found that prevented it from being quite perfect. In the story Louis goes to great lengths to explain the value of freedom, but then in the end he volunteers to leave one of his cygnets at the Philadelphia zoo whenever they need a new one. Since this would remove that cygnet's freedom, it seemed kind of hypocritical. E.B. White does appears to support zoos in this story, but with the amount of mixed signals he sends it wasn't always whole heartedly. The illustrations in they book by Fred Marcellino were very good and added immensely to the story.


Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book
Review: This tale of romance and courage kept me reading for hours. I couldn't stop reading it at home and school. I loved that book that I could read it again and again.This story is about a young swan that came into the world without a voice. He is determined to win the money he needs for his father's dept, because Louis's father stole a trumpet from a music store. Determined to raise the money needed.He travels from his beautiful home in Montana to places all over the country.He even got jobs like leading a swan boat in one place. Playing his trumpet at another and playing the trumpet at his human friend Sam Beaver's camp.Soon he raises the money he needs and his father pays back his dept.He also wins the heart of a female swan he loves Serena. This is a tale that'll have everyone reading for hours. I like this story and I'm sure others will too.