A Swift Return by Fiona Barker

Book Summary

Aria has her head in the clouds. Yusuf keeps his feet on the ground. But when they work together to save a bird who has lost her way, something magical happens. When Swift loses her way on her epic migration. Aria and Yusuf come to her rescue and are inspired to think big about looking after the sky above their city. Inspired by Fiona and Howard’s love for wildlife of all kinds, A Swift Return is the follow-up to Setsuko and the Song of the Sea. Howard’s beautiful illustrations evoke a strong sense of place, strengthened by the beautiful Arabic text distilled by Maysoon AbuBlan.

This book has such beautiful full page pictures with wonderful perspectives, views from the sky and the ground and in between. There's so much empathy in the children's expressions. I loved how helping the swift made them friends, then they worked to helped make the city a nicer place for everyone, including the wildlife.

Author Bio

Fiona is a middle-aged, married mum of one. She is positively potty about picturebooks; reading them and writing them. When writing, she longs for alliterative loveliness but is reluctant to rhyme. When reading, she looks for a marriage of words and artwork and loves anything that is fun to read aloud.

Fiona loves doing school author visits and speaking to adults about picture books and children's publishing.

Visit www.fionabarker.co.uk for details of forthcoming events.

To make an Alpine Swift, shake the following ingredients with ice: 40ml gold rum, 20ml Aperol, 20ml pineapple juice, 20ml lime juice, 10ml sugar syrup. Then pour into an ice filled julep cup.