The Trumpet of the Swan

Louis goes to Sam's school and learns to write on a slate hung around his neck, which is wonderful until he discovers that other swans cannot read. Then his father crashes through the window of a music shop in Billings and flies off with a brass trumpet, and Louis is left with both a voice and a debt. To pay it back he takes jobs as a bugler at a summer camp, as a performer on the Swan Boats in Boston and as a jazz trumpeter in Philadelphia.

White's prose is clear, playful and full of small jokes for adults, especially in the father's grand speeches. He also takes seriously what it means to owe someone and to make things right, which gives the story a moral backbone without preaching. The descriptions of lakes, marshes and migrating birds are some of the loveliest nature writing in children's books.

The plot wanders more than Charlotte's Web and a few episodes feel episodic, but readers who settle in will find it generous and charming. It also makes a lovely bridge from picture books to longer chapter books. About 272 pages in the HarperCollins paperback.