A Swift Return by Fiona Barker, Howard Gray and Maysoon AbuBlan – Blog Tour

A Swift Return by Fiona Barker and Howard Gray is an absolutely beautiful book. The story is sweet and life affirming without being saccharine, whilst the pictures manage to depict a dusty cityscape without detracting from the beauty of the city itself.

Arabic isn’t one of my languages, so I’m unable to comment on the translation/interpretation, but having a second language present is lovely – bilingualism in picture books really doesn’t have to be difficult and it would be amazing to see more stories offered in this way.

What I really loved about this book was the way in which it dealt with personal responsibility in regards to the environment. Can we fix things on our own? Nope. But can we make things better? Absolutely. And if everyone makes a few things better, then that’s a lot of improvement in the world. It reminds me a lot of this quote, actually:

I fully intend to gift copies of this to young children in my life – the sense of hope in it is infectious and what better gift is there to give?

Blurb

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.

About the Author

Fiona is a middle-aged, married mum of one. She is positively potty about picture books; 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.

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