*The Swallow’s Flight by Hilary McKay

The Swallow’s Flight gracefully unfolds the lives of two English girls and two German boys against the backdrop of World War II.  

*The Swallow’s Flight by Hilary KcKay. Margaret Elderry Books (Simon & Schuster), 2021, 272 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: Ages 12-15

Hans and Erik live in the same apartment building in Berlin but might never have become friends if Erik had not announced he was buying dead flies. The deceased insects were to feed the three orphaned swallows he’d rescued. Curiosity leads Hans to the nest on Erik’s windowsill, and the insatiable open mouths of baby birds, and their rescuer. Erik has a gift for animals, and Hans has a gift for friendship. Erik envisions a future as manager of the Berlin Zoo, while Hans proposes selling pastries at the gate. But by their late teens, something else steps in the way of their plans: another World War.

At roughly the same time, a girl named Ruby is growing up in Plymouth, England, with a widowed mother and an obnoxious big brother. She doesn’t mind the birthmarks on her face until her brother and others make her painfully aware of them; the resulting shame makes her touchy and sharp. She could use one real friend, and that friend might turn out to be a niece of Ruby’s godmother Clary. For her part, Kate is shy and sickly, the youngest of six siblings who live in Oxford. Friendship looks unlikely until war intervenes. The girls, thrown together during the Blitz, are eyewitnesses to battles in the sky over Britain—particularly, on one fateful day, two planes of the Luftwaffe flown by two very young pilots.

The writing style is elegantly simple but be warned: this is the sort of story that requires you to pay attention. There’s an epic quality to the narrative, spanning a total of 15 years and a multitude of characters that are a little hard to keep track of at first (don’t miss the family tree on page 275). And yet the emotional power is built on countless small gestures and ordinary interactions. Two boys bond over a nest of baby swallows. A clandestine wink at Christmas connects a shy girl and her irascible grandfather. A dog crying in the street discovers he has a heart. Little lives play out against big events, but the texture, color, and essential goodness of those lives reinforce a truth I’ve read from C. S. Lewis and others: that in the end, nations and wars and empires will matter much less than the individuals who built and lived them.

Consideration:

• Grandfather utters one curse words and one misuse of God’s name.
• Please note: The Swallow’s Flight is a sequel to The Skylark’s War, which takes place during World War I and follows characters who appear in The Swallow’s Flight as their younger selves. We haven’t read it yet, but we understand it includes a male character in love with another, darker scenes of war, and atheistic themes. The Swallow’s Flight can be read without referencing the previous book, so we still recommend it.

Overall Rating: 4.75 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 4.5
• Artistic/literary value: 5

Read more about our ratings here.                 

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Other books by Hilary McKay: The Time of Green Magic, the Lulu Series.
• Resource: Our World War II booklist for teens and tweens.

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