This story focuses on a family of swans who must fly north since spring has come. One smaller swan stays while all other swans leave, so her family stays with her, trying to get her to leave with them. The family stays by the lake far into spring, until the father swan realizes that his family must leave to the mountains to survive. The rest of the family fly up and try to get the little swan to leave with them one last time, but she stays on the ground. They say goodbye and fly away, but return to her one more night. That night, the little swan dies, and the swan family flies north. Once they make it to the mountains, they are surrounded by other swans, though they all feel lonely. When the morning light shines through the clouds, it reminds the family of the little swan, all of them calling out to the sky for the little swan. I thought this book was very beautiful, both in story and illustrations. Though the story is simple, it still manages to make the reader feel connections to the family of swans, especially after the younger swan dies. The detailed woodblock illustrations show the beauty of nature, as well as the emotions that the swans are feeling throughout the book. I thought that it was a lovely story, though children may feel that the story has an unhappy ending. ( )

This is a great book that teaches you many important things. Some of the things that this book teaches is about death and family. This book has great pictures and a great story line. I would defiantly read this book to my students because I feel that it is imporatant to teach students about death and how do families react during it. I would also recomend anyone to read this book for this reason. ( )