The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White

This is a fictional book about a swan named Louis who was born mute and learned how to play the trumpet to communicate.

Synopsis:

This book starts when Sam Beaver, an eleven-year-old boy, on a camping trip in Canada with his father, sees a male swan and female swan and discovers the nest they have made. One day, Sam gets to see the eggs hatch, and the cygnets all greet Sam except for Louis who was born mute.

Louis decides he should learn how to read and write to communicate, and Sam takes him to school with him, and buys him a slate and chalk. When Louis returns to the Red Rock Lakes in Montana, he falls in love with Serena, a female swan.

However, he cannot communicate with her so Louis’s father gets him a trumpet, and Louis learns how to play the trumpet to play music for Serena. He ends up getting a job as camp bugler at a summer camp Sam attends, and after rescuing a drowning camper, Louis receives a Lifesaving Medal.

Louis then gets a job with the Swan Boats in Boston where he earns $100/week and his own suite at the Ritz Hotel and at a Philadelphia nightclub. He stays temporarily at the Philadelphia Zoo where he meets Serena again, and they fall in love with each other.

Louis and Serena fly back to Montana and reunite with his family and eventually start their own family.

Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the character of Louis and the bond between Sam and Louis.

“Tonight, I heard Louis’s horn. My father heard it, too. The wind was right, and I could hear the notes of taps, just as darkness fell. There is nothing in all of the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan.”

On the pond, where the swans were, Louis put his trumpet away. The cygnets crept under their mother’s wings. Darkness settled on woods and fields and marsh. A loon called its wild night cry. As Louis relaxed and prepared for sleep, all his thoughts were how lucky he was to inhabit such a beautiful earth, how lucky he had been to solve his problems with music, and how pleasant it was to look forward to another night of sleep and another day tomorrow, and the fresh morning, and the light that returns with the day.