Louis the trumpeter swan is born mute. He goes to a human school and learns to write, and then to play the trumpet. He gets odd jobs to save enough money to pay for his trumpet, from a summer camp bugler to a Boston Commons tour guide to a jazz musician in Philadelphia. Finally, he finds the female swan of his dreams.

Weirder and longer than I remember from when I was a kid, and has way less of the human boy on the cover in it. I enjoyed the beginning, and the views on disability are slightly more progressive than I expected (though the book uses a word for “mute” that we would not now). It’s nice that Louis finds accommodations but does not get “fixed” at the end. Louis’ quest for money is rather boring. The reader already knows that the full insurance cost for the trumpet is $900 so it’s a little annoying to see Louis work so hard for so much more than he needs/wants. But overall it’s pretty charming, there's some very funny bits, and the illustrations are lovely. ( )

AR: 4.9

Like the rest of his family, Louis is a trumpeter swan. But unlike his four brothers and sisters, Louis can't trumpet joyfully. In fact, he can't even make a sound. And since he can't trumpet his love, the beautiful swan Serena pays absolutely no attention to him.

Louis tries everything he can think of to win Serena's affection--he even goes to school to learn to read and write. But nothing seems to work. Then his father steals him a real brass trumpet. Is a musical instrument the key to winning Louis his love?

Like the rest of his family, Louis is a trumpeter swan. But unlike his four brothers and sisters, Louis can't trumpet joyfully. In fact, he can't even make a sound. And since he can't trumpet his love, the beautiful swan Serena pays absolutely no attention to him.

Louis tries everything he can think of to win Serena's affection--he even goes to school to learn to read and write. But nothing seems to work. Then his father steals him a real brass trumpet. Is a musical instrument the key to winning Louis his love?

Parts of this classic children’s story were cute and other parts were disturbing. It is just my usual misgivings with anthropomorphized stories influencing my opinion. As always, the illustrations by Fred Marcellino were cute.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Original Publication Date: 1970
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