The Trumpet of the Swan

By E.B. White
Illustrated by Fred Marcellino

HarperCollins, 1970
$16.95 hardcover
252 pages

Ko-hoh! Ko-hoh! call the trumpeter swans, but young Louis has no voice. In a human school he learns to read and write, which gives him the unusual ability to communicate with people, but not with the other swans. He cannot tell the beautiful Serena that he loves her.

To give his son a voice, Louis's father steals a trumpet. Louis wants to pay for it honestly. From summer camp in the Ontario woods to the Swan Boats in the Boston Public Garden to the Philadelphia Zoo, Louis plays his beautiful music, and everyone who hears him feels changed forever.

E.B. White's story is the same as always: gentle, amusing, and quietly triumphant. It's easy to forget the humor later on, which is a shame because White knows how to have fun with words (especially the old cob's pompous verbosity) but you'll carry the book's joyfulness with you for a long time. The story may seem fondly idealistic at times, and yet it is also warmly comforting to imagine a world where a bird might be made welcome in a school or hotel. Today, the music store owner's reaction with the gun is all too likely.

This new edition also features new illustrations, this time by Fred Marcellino. Marcellino, who among many other books so charmingly illustrated Tor Seidler's A Rat's Tale and The Wainscott Weasel, approaches The Trumpet of the Swan with a similarly understated whimsy. His pictures, particularly the faces and poses, illuminate both swan and human alike with an endearing comedy and grace.

Trumpeter swans were an endangered species even when E.B. White first published his book in 1970. Today wildlife biologists try to teach young trumpeters their migratory routes using ultralight planes, but success is compromised when the birds suffer accidents and deliberate acts of vandalism. Maybe, in a small way, The Trumpet of the Swan can help to increase appreciation for the endangered trumpeter swan. It is not necessarily what White intended for his book, but it's a noble legacy all the same.

Dust jacket are by Fred Marcellino; image used courtesy of HarperCollins.

Reviewed by Wendy Morris. © 2000 by Wendy Morris.

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