Summer of the Swans Book

Set in small town West Virginia during the 1960s (and basically a tale of family, friendship and yes, not always being so quick to jump to wrong, to erroneous conclusions), I first encountered Betsy Byars' Newbery Award winning Summer of the Swans in German translation (probably in 1976 when I was ten years old, but it might in fact have been a year earlier, in 1975). And I do well remember that I absolutely loved Summer of the Swans as a child (or Als die Schwäne kamen as the novel is known in German), that I read the novel three times in a row, that I most definitely felt very emotionally close and connected to especially main protagonist Sara Godfrey (and although she at the age of fourteen was perhaps a bit too mature and teenager-like for a nine or ten year old like me, I did indeed find Als die Schwäne kamen absolutely relatable, approachable and both heartbreaking and also extremely loving and encouraging at the same time).

And yes most certainly, I do still as an oder adult rereading so much love and appreciate the realism of Betsy Byars' family dynamics depictions, how in The Summer of the Swans, Sara's relationships and her dealings, her rapport with her aunt Willie (Wilhelmina), her older Sister Wanda and her physically and emotionally challenged younger brother Charlie are portrayed as realistic, as both positive and indeed sometimes strained and quite negative (and while everyone in the family, while Aunt Willie, Wanda and Sara obviously clearly and dearly love little Charlie, that sometimes, he is also more than a handful, that sometimes, one needs a lot of patience and self discipline to deal with him, to not become too annoyed at and frustrated with him, but that of course, all this becomes totally secondary when Charlie wanders off alone early one morning to look for the swans which Sara had shown him and that had obviously very lastingly have enthralled him, and cannot be located, is lost somewhere in the deep woods).

Now like many teenagers, Sara at fourteen feels very much unsure of herself, often moody, unhappy and in particular not at all satisfied with regard to her physical appearance, with regard to her looks, especially because her older sister Wanda is considered by everyone as very beautiful and graceful, so much so that Sara actually often feels somewhat left behind, that she feels as though she will never catch up to Wanda, that she will always be a mousy and unimportant proverbial ugly duckling so to speak, and that first and foremost, her supposed (in Sara's mind) lack of physical grace, charm and beauty will also prevent her from ever being able to catch, let alone hold on to a steady boyfriend (thus naturellement, Sara also cannot and will not believe that her classmate Joe Melby has not been bullying and tormenting her little brother Charlie, until Charlie gets lost and Joe helps Sara find him and Sara finally realises her mistaken belief that Joe had been amongst the bullies harassing her little brother, that he actually might be friend or even potential boyfriend material, someone who cares for her, someone who accepts her little brother's physical and emotional challenges and someone with whom she might indeed enjoy spending more quality time).

And finally, what I have indeed always much if not most enjoyed and appreciated with regard to The Summer of the Swans is how for one Betsy Byars focusses mainly on realistic, every-day happenings, scenarios and occurrences (well, perhaps with the exception of Charlie getting lost) and on realistic family dynamics (both positive and negative, even occasionally quite painful) and that for two, the author's writing style is also and appreciatively imbued with that same type of realism and understatement, with natural sounding dialogues, with vocabulary choices that feel unexaggerated and truthful, that are not overwrought and extreme in expressivity and emotionality (and thus, even though emotions are raw and immediate in Summer of the Swans, they are in my opinion naturally depicted, they, like the author's description of family, of small town life read and feel true and actually very much like scenarios that can and do occur in real life, and not in fantasy land).

Now while I do have to admit that with regard to personal nostalgia, I still somewhat prefer the German translation that I read as a nine/ten year old, that I do in fact enjoy Als die Schwäne kamen a tiny and trifling bit more than the original, I can and will most certainly very highly and warmly recommend Summer of the Swans (but with the caveat that since Summer of the Swans was penned in 1970 and thus more than forty years ago, especially some of the words used to describe little Charlie, his challenges and limitations might not really be what one would call entirely politically correct by today's standards, albeit that Betsy Byars definitely and yes very fortunately and happily always points out that the word "retarded" is pejorative and bigoted and should not in ANY manner be used to depict and describe Sara's little brother, who is also first and foremost portrayed as a little boy, albeit he is a youngster with challenges and someone who can thus also at times be challenging to and for his nearest and dearest).