Song of the Swallows

A boy named Juan lives near Mission San Juan Capistrano in Southern California and spends his days with Julian, an old gardener and bell ringer at the mission, who teaches him about the mission's history and about the swallows that return to nest there every spring on the same day, year after year. Waiting for their return, Juan plants his own small garden in hopes the birds might choose it too, and when the swallows finally arrive and some do nest in Juan's garden, the whole community gathers to celebrate on Saint Joseph's Day, ringing the mission bells together in welcome. Leo Politi both wrote and illustrated the book, painting the mission's arches, gardens and bell tower in warm ochre, sienna and blue green tones drawn from the actual Southern California landscape he lived in and loved.

It reads gently and moves slowly, closer to a seasonal portrait of a specific place than to a story built around conflict, and its warmth comes as much from Politi's evident affection for the mission and its Mexican American community as from anything Juan himself does. Young children respond well to the anticipation built into waiting for the swallows, a real event tied to an actual date that gives the book's quiet plot a genuine payoff when the birds finally appear, and it works especially well for families with any connection to Southern California or an interest in the region's Spanish colonial mission history.

Politi had been living in Los Angeles since 1931 and spent years sketching around Olvera Street before this book appeared, and that sustained, firsthand familiarity with the setting is what separates Song of the Swallows from a picture book researched at a distance rather than lived in.