The Summer Birds

In my other blog, I posted a meme about books and mentioned a book that I'd looked for for years (see #9).

My friend, AncyKate, found it for me in five minutes, bless her heart, and I ordered it, and have now read it again.

It's a gentle little story with Peter Pan elements -- a boy who can fly and teaches the children in the village to fly with him. It lacks pirates and crocodiles, which makes it "gentle" but I recall finding the ending very sad when I read it, and it moved me enough to remember it all my life.

I think one thing it did was give me a window into other children's lives -- two sisters who live in a bizarre old house with a grandfather who is "reading astrology" and a haphazard housekeeper who doesn't seem to like to cook or keep house. References to other children's lives that were equally alien to me in my Dallas neighborhood. It's something I've always been fascinated by, getting glimpses of how other people live. It's one major reason I read.

I can't say it's a great book. I can say I'm glad I read it again, and am glad it's now on my bookshelf.