Rating: 
Summary: highly recommended!
Review: This is a touching story about a teenage girl's relationship with her mentally retarded brother. Sara loves Charlie, but her gets on her nerves on a daily basis until the day he is no longer there. When Sara realizes he is missing, her feelings of guilt along with concern for her brother's welfare are evident as she makes her search for him a personal vendetta. The reader then sees the selfless, unconditional love which so often exists among family members. The lesson I learned from reading this book is to appreciate those people in your life that you love, and let them know how much you care for them because you never know what the future will bring.
Rating: 
Summary: MIGRATION FROM GIRLHOOD
Review: This book (like Me, Too by Vera and Bill Cleaver) deals with the effects of mental retardation upon the family. Sara's 14th summer proves unbalanced and utterly dissatisfactory. She feels unappreciated, unloved and unlovely, awkward in both heart and body. She deeply resents her
inability to communicate with her 10-year-old brother. The one note of peace and beauty which touches her life is the temporary presence of some graceful, wild swans summering on a local lake. But even they--like her Charlie--are mute.
Going through the gawky stage (half girl, half woman) Sara can't come to terms with the adults in her world, much less her peers. She just wants to
"fly away" with the swans, to escape her dreary
existence. But she is painfully anchored to her stressful home, her unflattering appearance and
to her lame-duck little brother.
It is Charlie--who gets lost one day--who teaches her the meaning of sibling loyalty and gives her the courage to exert herself in a vital cause.
Her quest showed her the value of a friend she had rejected, and revealed that she is proud to be a
member of her family. Welcome to the flock, Sara!
Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful treatment of a gentle sibling relationship.
Review: Readers will identify with the protagonist, a young girl who feels awkward and self-concious. The girl forgets all about herself when her mentally handicapped brother becomes lost while searching for the beautiful swans he had seen earlier. The swans are symbolic of the girls' transition from ugly duckling to graceful young woman. I especially enjoyed how Byars develops the special relationship between brother and sister. A warm, gentle book.
Rating: 
Summary: If you are critical of bad writing, don't read this book!
Review: I read this book in sixth grade. As a sixth grader, I didn't look at novels the way I do now, but I hated it anyway. Ignoring writing conventions, plot, theme, and description, it is just plain boring. I'll read anything, and it bored me when I was a little kid! I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone with a brain
Rating:
Summary: Great Story About Sibling Bonds
Review: "The Summer of the Swans" is about the day when Sara Godfrey's mentally handicapped brother Charlie disappears after visiting the swans at the lake. Nobody is sure what happened to him, but everyone expects the worst because it's not typical for Charlie to have run off alone. Sara feels responsible for losing her brother since she's the closest to him. Aunt Willie also blames herself because she had promised Sara and Charlie's dead mother she would protect him--and now he's gone. Soon a search party gathers and everyone begins to look for the missing ten-year-old. Even though "The Summer of the Swans" is primarily about the search for Charlie, Sara's family life begins to open up and we discover the different relationships she has with her simple younger brother Charlie, her overbearing aunt Willie, her older sister Wanda, and her remote father. The recommended age group for this book is 8 - 12, but I would recommend it to anyone who has a mentally handicapped family member or can somehow relate with the story. It's easy reading and moves along rather quickly--the chapters are short and there are a few illustrations by Ted CoConis. "The Summer of the Swans" won the Newbery Award in 1971. The book was later made into a TV movie in 1974 (aka "Sara's Summer of the Swans"), which I never saw because it was made before I was born. I also recommend reading "The Falcon's Wing" by Dawna Lisa Buchanan (mentally handicapped family member).
Rating:
Summary: Summer of the Swans
Review: Summer of the Swans, now isn't that an interesting title for a book? Well not only is it an iteresting title, it's an interesting book by Betsy Byars.
It's about a 14 year-old girl, her name is Sara, and all summer she was worrying about her hair, the way she looks, and most of all she thinks she has big feet,
"I have the biggest feet in my school." She said. What a typical teenager!
Sara has an older sister named Wanda, Wanda is perfect in Sara's eyes, but her Aunt Willie, the one who cares for them, is strict, and sometimes mean. Sara has a 10 year-old brother,Charlie, who is mentally challenged. One day Sara took Charlie to see the swans, but Charlie didn't want to go home. The next morning Charlie had disappeared! On sara's frantic search for Charlie, she begins to forget about her so called problems and begins to think about someone other than herself. On her search, the wrong person at the wrong time, Joe Melby, wants to help. She does not like him so much because she thinks he stole Charlie's watch.
"Is there anything I can do?" he asked
"No." she replied
"Do you-"
"Anybody who would steal a little boy's watch," she said, cutting off his words, "is somebody's help I can do very well without." Ouch, that hurt!
What I think the author is trying to say is that the swans symbolize Sara at the beginning of summer, she felt ugly, unwanted, and unloved, just like in The Ugly Duckling. At the end of summer she feels beautiful, wanted and loved, just like in the end of The Ugly Duckling.
I feel this book is for people who feel what Sara is feeling in the beginning, because I truly think that every girl and boy goes through what Sara goes through. This is a delightful book for anyone of all ages.
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