The Summer of the Swans

For Sara that summer, everything was changed. It was like being on a see-saw and she could never really be sure of anything. And then the arrival of the Swans and the disappearance of Charlie, her ten-year-old mentally handicapped brother, help her to see people, events and herself in a different way. The emotional intensities and comic anxieties of early teenage - 'I have the biggest feet in my school', 'The peak of my whole life so far was when I got to be milk monitor' - are conveyed with the insight and wry humour which are the mark of a Betsy Byars' novel. Very readable - from 11/12 up. Thank you Hippo for making his one available in this country.