The Summer Birds

Aviary Hall #1

by Penelope Farmer, James J. Spanfeller (Illustrator)

A strange, magical boy approaches Charlotte and Emma Makepeace on their way to school one day, and offers to teach them to fly. Soon all of the children in the village have learned, and are given one precious summer of flight and freedom, although they must struggle to keep their outings secret.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Summer, Young Adult, Speculative Fiction

155 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1962

About the author

Penelope Jane Farmer is an English fiction writer well known for children's fantasy novels. Her best-known novel is Charlotte Sometimes (1969), a boarding-school story that features a multiple time slip.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange boy arrives and befriends children from the village school one by one, he helps them to slip unnoticed from lessons and teaches them something far more exciting than anything that could be learnt in school.

Having loved the third book in this series, Charlotte Sometimes, I was keen to read the first two which I found on open library. Although this has a different theme to Charlotte sometimes the magic is still there, this author has a beautiful and poetic way with words and captures the feel of summer, friendship and magic seen through the eyes of a child.

Read on open library.

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

She was crying and crying for a girl who died so many years before...

The Cure (well, Robert Smith if you wanna get megalomaniacal about it) took all or most of the lyrics to "Charlotte Sometimes" directly from Penelope Farmer's book if I recall correctly (I swear on my dog's life that I am right). That's what I loved about it. I love that song. Teenaged Mariel copied a list of Robert Smith's favorite books from the official website for The Cure (the first website I ever visited, in fact) and I'd walk eight miles each way to the public library to hunt them down. Mervyn Peake's The Gormenghast Trilogy were my favorites. I can remember every thing about the days when I read those books for the first time. When he sings that Fuchsia makes him feel like the drowning man (The Cure song about those books), that he wants nothing more to go inside the books to change things... I knew how he felt. Charlotte Sometimes wasn't available in the USA at the time. It would be several more years before I could read it. I knew about Charlotte who was sometimes Charlotte, sometimes someone else (there's a music video in the grand tradition of shitty Alice movies that cast bland adult actors in the parts of children for no good reason). I had heard about her. She was a girl I knew. I'm not sure if my review of Charlotte Sometimes survived my cultural revolution of last May or not. I don't really want to look. I'd rather keep my fond memories of joining goodreads and adding every book I had ever read in my life. That's my version of writing a song like Robert Smith did for those books he loved. "Five stars to David Grossman! Oh my god, Gormenghast and Charlotte Sometimes!" It was a really good day that day in November 2007. Sometimes I get the same feeling when I spy an old favorite on my bookshelf (I'll glare at the old one stars, those betterthanmasterandmargaritas). I'll repeat it here in case: The NYRB copy changes the ending. Bastards! An ex boyfriend (probably) has the copy (the first book I ever ordered on the internet) I had. Well, yeah.

I haven't smiled in weeks. At least I can't remember the last time. My smile lines are turning into frown lines. So I found The Summer Birds in my sister's books. Okay, I felt like she owed me some kind of hidden gem that we'd both love by blood (like how she, my brother and myself independently fell in love with Watership Down within a couple of days of each other). Farmer wrote two books before Charlotte Sometimes. The Summer Birds and another one about sister Emma (this I haven't read). I didn't know about these books in the '90s. I should probably mention that since I'm getting into my reading history now.

Maybe it was me and the inner drought. I have wanted to drown and instead I've sunk. I told my sister that I was reading it. She hadn't read far into it herself. She said it was "too kiddie". She also said that maybe Charlotte Sometimes was and something about how immature she used to be in those days was why she wouldn't have noticed or minded. I don't feel more grown up. I can picture Charlotte in her bed and slipping into another girl's life. I'm enchanted by my memory, yeah. Maybe it's like how you feel like a kid again in your memories of yourself. It's the song you wish you could hear again for the first time, newborn. I knew that girl.

I want to tell my sister about it anyway, even though she probably won't read this review, and she wouldn't like the book. I want to talk about it like it was something that I had really liked. I'm going to do that. I can still have that. (Or anyone else who wants to. I like when I get thank you messages from teenagers about reviews from 2010 I don't even remember writing. The best part is some caveat about how THEY have a life outside of books. That's a relief. I don't! When I do I miss when books were the most important thing. It won't be long until I make it go back there.)


Farmer's voice reminded me of the talks to kids voice that C.S. Lewis employed in The Silver Chair (my number one favorite Narnia story). The adults are the big gray mass in the world of black and white that gets in the way of the really, really good story time feeling, you know? Charlotte is stuck in the shapeless matter of shades of dull. The other children scorn her. Her younger sister Emma is the untethered spirit. The sisters live with their grandfather who is a firm believer in seen and unheard. I bet Charlotte would have found solace in Eleanor from Sense and Sensibility if she had known of it at that age. A life lived quietly so that the other could face less consequences. They both watch the sparrows and long to fly as they do. Only one allows herself the unminding childish instincts. One day the girls meet a boy on their way to school. Another goodreads review already wrote what I was thinking about Peter Pan. It was a one-liner review and they didn't go into detail, darn their eyes. I know of one goodreader who envied Wendy Darling for her spring cleaning visits to mother the lost boys. I thought it was bull shit. Maybe she had some motherly instinct to take care of people. But would they remember Wendy when she wasn't there to wash their footie pajamas? Peter Pan makes me sad. It's sad to not find some way of having our own dreams without letting someone else in. I'm not one to talk. It makes me sad about me too. So Charlotte meets this bird-like Peter Pan-like boy-like creature-like something. He's enigmatic smiles and no answers and not really any questions either. Every day he will teach one kid how to fly. Charlotte is first. Charlotte made me so sad how she needs another tug on a line for her. She would give her own inch for someone else, like with Emma. It's not enough that he is teaching her to fly? Farmer writes that Charlotte doesn't know of her own elegance in flight. It's giggles from far away. It's Emma's laughter. It's what were they talking about her. It's the boy says she is the slowest to learn that he ever taught (Emma is the fastest. Who didn't guess that?). My favorite was the other girl who is known as Maggot. Maggot is a sort who "knows things", much like the like other things but you can't place your finger on it boy. Charlotte would have an unspoken friendship with her. At least she knew that they liked each other. That was better than all of those kids who only saw gray when they looked at Charlotte. Maggot made me sad too when she is hesitant to allow herself an inch in the world, such as visiting Charlotte and Emma's home for a meal. I would love to be able to fly. I didn't really wish for the boy to teach me how. I didn't care about every kid in the town getting to learn. I have the feeling about them like about those adults who would creep in on your day dreaming time with reality. They are kids. Sure, they were afraid of the adults taking their secret. (What if the adults were waiting for them to go to school so they could have THEIR free time?) I don't know them. I know the feeling about being afraid to be yourself because of who else is around. That is what I'm going to say is the special feeling about The Summer Birds. It is a sad feeling because Charlotte needs the pull and will not get it. She loses, she doesnt take or give. It is standing aside story. The smiles will no longer come. The kids become adults or the adults become kids. I'm not sure. I really wish I remembered the feeling of becoming someone else, losing yourself, that Charlotte Sometimes had. Penelope Farmer must've worried about that a lot, huh? I wish she had good books. Robert Smith would probably wish that too. Okay, so I didn't make it into "my" book, exactly. I made me want to listen to The Cure.

But there was nothing to remind Charlotte of the gull fall from the cliff down to the moving sea. The boy had gone.

Those were good days when I'd go to the library. I'd take risks and read anything from any shelf. I had all of the time in the world. That was the summer, though. The rest of my time was stolen.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book when I was in the fourth grade. About children who learn to fly, for real. It made such an impression on me that for a few years I had lots of dreams where I could fly, which were always great fun. I reread it several times in elementary school, borrowing it from the school library, and as a young adult bought a copy for myself which I still have, but I haven't read it for many years. This is well written and does not talk down to kids as I remember, despite it being a fantasy book. I found it exhilarating and sad at the same time. I really felt for Charlotte, one of the main characters. But it was the allure of the kids being able to fly that most interested me.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally a short story, intended for inclusion in the author's first book, The China People , and then expanded into a novel in its own right, Penelope Farmer's The Summer Birds is a poignant, lyrically descriptive children's fantasy that addresses itself to the common childhood dream of learning to fly. Opening one summer morning, as sisters Charlotte and Emma Makepeace encounter a strange bird-like boy, on their way to school, it chronicles the magical season that follows, one in which the boy - never named - teaches the entire class how to fly, and leads them on a number of extraordinary adventures. From an idyllic Saturday at the nearby lake, in which the sisters and their schoolmates fly and play; to a deadly serious 'tournament,' in which the leader of the group - whether the boy, or Totty (Thomas) Feather - is to be chosen; the children are entirely engrossed in their new aerial activity, and, by the end of the summer, ready (almost) to follow the boy to a new world...

Farmer's sense of the ineffable here, of the deeper and truer meanings and feelings, running along beneath the surface of events - sometimes sensed, but so infrequently captured or expressed - is really quite astonishing! There is this lovely passage, toward the close of the book, that describes Charlotte's reaction to her first flight, in the style of a seagull, diving toward the sea: "Nothing would ever be as good as that. Not even the next fall, when she tried again to act as a gull, not even that was as good...Nothing would ever be like that first drop to the sea - down like a gull falling seaward from the cliff. It had been the best, yet somehow the saddest, happening of her whole life, but she could explain neither the happiness nor the sadness." - that perfectly captures the feeling of the book, for me. There is both joy and sadness here - the joy of a dream's fulfillment, and the sadness of that dream's fulfillment. And there is danger, and a worrying sense of disquietude, in the midst of the magic. This isn't a sweet story, but a strangely beautiful and sharp one, that haunts the reader long afterward.

My first foray into the work of Penelope Farmer, The Summer Birds most assuredly will not be my last! Recommended to young readers who dream of flying, and who have a taste for stories with an odd, eldritch flavor.

[Penni Russon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a spare book, far more simple in its structure than Charlotte Sometimes (the most well known book in this triptych about Charlotte and Emma) but foreshadowing many of the same themes about time and melancholy. It's not often that I read a book and think, 'this would be a great film', but the visual qualities of this book and the tension between the characters would lend itself well to cinema.
I was amazed after reading Charlotte Sometimes last year to my eight year old to discover that there were two more books about the same characters, it was almost like one of those dreams where you realise your house has hidden rooms. These two books are entirely stand-alone (I am yet to read Emma in Winter) which is why I use the term triptych rather than trilogy, this is far more satisfying than if they had been interdependent in my opinion.
Penelope Farmer is my perfect children's writer - her characters are real and relatable, her magical scenarios are slight modifications on reality and entirely believable, and underpinning her fairy-tale weavings are BIG ideas and an almost philosophical enchantment.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What a great book. It had a lot more to it than I expected. For me, it all started with "Charlotte Sometimes," Farmer's third book in this series about the Makepeace sisters. When I started reading that award winning book earlier this year, I didn't know it was part of a series. When I finished reading it, I was eager to get the first two books. I was surprised to discover they're out of print! Thanks goodness for the online sale of used books.
Before my books came, I read some reviews that said they paled in comparison to "Charlotte Sometimes," which is quite an extraordinary novel. I imagined these first two books would at least be fun, though, and I was eager to get to see more of Charlotte & get to know her little sister (who is only referred to in "Charlotte Sometimes.") At first, "The Summer Birds" seemed like a very light-hearted-Peter-Pan-esque story. Though it was not as extraordinary as "Charlotte Sometimes," it was just as gripping. It developed into more than a fun read, exploring themes of childhood and of growing up: the inexplicable, unstoppable passing of time, the power of memories, and the importance of responsibility.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children's book I'd never heard of--stumbled upon looking for Charlotte Sometimes. This is the first book Farmer wrote about Charlotte, and it has a dreamy, summery laziness about it. I think it suffers with too many characters, including a few (like Charlotte's sister) who get forgotten or shortchanged. But a child's vision of the summer heat and fields and leaves and water and light come through very strong. Soundtrack: XTC's Skylarking.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely, melancholy book that probably would have meant even more to me if I read it when I was younger.

[Keri Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had a promising beginning (there’s nothing more fun than the idea of children learning to fly!), but quickly devolved into a mind numbingly boring story that feels like a vastly inferior copy of Peter Pan.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for all three of what are designated the Aviary Hall books. The title is derived from the gloomy manor house in which orphans Charlotte and Emma Makepeace live with their grandfather. The house is on the outskirts of a small village, where in the first book, The Summer Birds, the two girls attend primary school. The second book is Emma's story after Charlotte leaves for boarding school (Emma in Winter) and Charlotte Sometimes finishes the series with Charlotte's adventures.

The books are young adult fantasies. They owe something in tone to the Green Knowe books by Boston, but easily stand on their own merits. Farmer doesn't provide conventionally happy endings to any of the books, nor are there explanations for a lot of the drivers of the stories. In the first, Charlotte and Emma encounter a strange boy as they walk to school. In short order he teaches them and the other pupils to fly. A glorious summer vacation is punctuated by expeditions, fights and attempts to uncover the boy's secret. He eats insects, is frequently described in birdlike terms but otherwise remains a mystery to all of the students. Is he the Pied Piper? The book ends with overtones of that story and Peter Pan.

Emma's story picks up during the winter term. Charlotte is gone, Emma is desolate and lonely, and the children have lost the ability to fly (which they had, and remember. In other words, the boy and the golden summer were not imaginary). But Emma begins to dream, and soon realizes that the most unpopular boy in the class is in the dreams. He too is flying. The atmosphere of the book is dense with subtext. Emma and Bobby --- the boy --- grow emotionally as they pursue the meanings of their shared dreams. It ends with no real resolution, but the indication that they have passed the threshold of childhood into the complexities of adolescence.

Charlotte Sometimes was my own favorite, but I truly loved all three. Charlotte finds herself spending every other day at boarding school in place of a girl who lived there in 1918-1919. That girl switches places with the Charlotte of the 1960s. It is a fairly straightforward time travel book, and gives a solid look at the experience of World War I's British home front. As in all of the books, the characters are very well drawn. Farmer doesn't skim over the horrendous loss of life suffered by the soldiers and their relatives alike.

Highly recommend the entire series, and it actually does help to read them in order.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very special book! This was a brilliant blend of utter fantasy with gritty realism. While there are a few adults (most are "off-screen" parents), the bulk of the story is told within a contained circle of children. The conflicts (and resolutions) are those of children, and ring mostly true. Of course, the fantasy elements are beyond belief, but even these are presented very organically, with everything fitting the beautiful mood and setting.

I loved the names/nicknames and descriptions of the children and their various inter-kid relationships.

I'm most curious to read the next in the series - this book seems quite happily self-contained. I wonder what will be next?

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very short book and is part of the 3 book series that includes Charlotte Sometimes. CS inspired a song by the Cure and so I read it a while ago and found it to be fantastic, so I wanted to read the whole series. It's not in print so you have to get it from a library.

Anyway, this is the first book in the series and introduces you to Charlotte and her sister Emma. The second book is Emma in Winter (which I also have) and then Charlotte Sometimes. However, the events of CS take place just slightly before EiW begins. So I think I'll re-read CS before starting EiW.

Anyway again, this book is about a mysterious boy that teaches Charlotte, Emma and all their friends how to fly like birds. The story itself is somewhat simple but the ending was very unpredictable, which I particularly enjoyed. If you've ever heard the song Charlotte Sometimes and loved it, you should check out the entire series that spawned it, starting here!

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I liked the first half, it was spoiled for me by the author's unskillful handling of the "conflict". She builds it up naturally at the lake, then retreats so she can work in the seaside scene, and then tries to rebuild her lost momentum. For village children getting what education they can in a one-room schoolhouse, they all speak in a very stilted and unnatural manner, even for 1962 ("I" instead of "me", etc.)

The Peter Pan-knockoff ending made me want to throw this book across the room. If I had found this book when a child I would have loved the first part and hated the ending. Still do, in fact.

[Alenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this book just about every summer since I was around 10, and I hope my kids love it just as much as I do. This book actually deserves better than 5 stars... it's much better than "amazing", it was (and still is) magical.

[Sherwood Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, poignant, lovely, this story holds up over the years, changing perspective as one gets older. Reading it as an eleven year old longing to be free, to fly, to get away, I found the ending unbearably poignant. Now I find it poignant for different reasons.

[Taryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a book I loved as a young girl and I wanted to reread it to remember why. It's by the same author who wrote Charlotte Sometimes of Cure-song fame but I didn't know that back then. I just loved the idea of a mysterious boy teaching all the school children how to fly...

[Onni · Rating 2 out of 5]

My edition says this book was published in 1985, but it reads like it was written in the 1960s. The writing is very British in style, so you get a C.S. Lewis vibe when you read it, but without the mystery. Maybe as a child the story would capture you, but reading it as an adult I found it lacking.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was a tween in the 80's and I still remember it. I'm looking for it to read again. Truly one of the best books I have ever, ever, read.

[Cynthia Frazer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An out-of-print favorite from my childhood, which I have read to my children, too.

For those of use who wanted to fly up to get the blackberries from the tallest brambles.

[Vincent Waldron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Penelope Farmer is an author best known for the book Charlotte Sometimes. This book is the first in a series of three books about the Makepeace sisters, Charlotte and Emily.

The book is basically about the children in a small town meeting a nameless boy who teaches them to fly and the summer they spend interacting with him and each other. The exploits are relatively tame -- mostly the sorts of things you would imagine yourself as a pre-teen doing if you figured out how to fly.

The biggest question surrounds the boy -- who is he, or perhaps, what is he? He does bear a striking resemblance to Peter Pan -- although somewhat less fun and magical and by the end of the book, none of the questions are really answered.

Farmer uses a lot of bird like imagery throughout the book, even giving some of the characters names like, "Feather." It still feels like a single idea that isn't quite enough to make a book. If it started as a short story, it might have been better to keep it that way, because one gets the feeling by the end that there isn't quite enough story here for a full length book -- even a short one for children.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story about English kids learning, one by one, to escape their end-of-term classes and fly. The plot proceeds slowly through the summer to a conclusion as the new term begins.

This book has occasional line drawings of the characters. It would be a perfect read-aloud book with younger kids. The main character here is Charlotte Makepeace; her sister Emma is a main character in the next book Emma in Winter, and we return to Charlotte again in Charlotte Sometimes.

It is the last of these that I may have read as a kid - it is also the most well known. I found all three in the Internet Archive, and enjoyed this quick read.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book perfectly catches my dreams of flying - the freedom, the joy, but also the encroaching sadness, knowing that when I wake up it will all be gone. Beautiful, lyrical writing.

Farmer pairs this with an unsentimental view of childhood that reminds me, of all things, of Lord of the Flies. The children of the village are constantly negotiating status and relationships, and Charlotte, our point of view character, is acutely aware of all the insecurities and jealousies that go along with that.

Really a good book, and worth the effort to find it. The illustrations, however, are another matter. Just pretend they aren't there.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember this book. I loved it at first. Kids getting to learn how to fly. I would have loved to learn how to fly.
However I remember hating the end. having reread the synopsis in order to refresh my memory. I now realize it is because I hated the fact the kids, gave up flying. ( I don't know if they officially did or not but that's the impression I got)
I may reread this especially since I never realised this book was part of a series, until shelving it just now.
Then again maybe not.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever tale of a boy who teaches a group of school children to fly. That of itself is magical, but there are also deeper themes of learning to fly, soaring on your own, being envious of others abilities. Some are willing to take risks and others our more cautious. “ nothing would ever be like that first drop to the sea down like a goal falling seaward from the cliff. It had been the best, yet somehow the saddest, happening of her whole life, but she could explain neither the happiness nor the sadness.

[Valerie Hancock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in 1966, when I was 9 years old.
I loved it so much that it has remained my fondest childhood reading memory for 55 years.
I was completely consumed by the story, that I was transported to the most delightful dreamworld of imagination that swept me away.
This was the book that made me realize the power of reading, and started my intense love of reading that has lasted my lifetime.
Thankyou so much, Penelope. 💞

[Janna Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Interesting. I just recently found out that a book I loved as a kid, Charlotte Sometimes, is actually the third book in the Aviary Hall trilogy. This one is the first book and I was expecting something similar to Charlotte Sometimes in tone, but this is very different. Much slower, a little darker, kind of eerie and mysterious, really. I liked it, but it didn’t feel like a prequel to Charlotte Sometimes, which disappointed me a little.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautifully covert love story.

And a teacher, who empathizes with her children flying.

And the sisters.

I’m so grateful I picked up ‘Charlotte, Sometimes’ from my childhood collection, discovered Ms. Farmer had written a series, and Amazon had it.

I’ll treasure it forever.

And maybe, one day, write like her.

Thank you Penelope.

[Jolyne Kujoh · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most boring childrens novels I've ever read. Any sort of conflict is resolved almost immediately, leaving no stakes and no reason to continue reading. Things just occur, and while I appreciate the fact that its for younger children and does not need to be intense, its impossible to shake the feeling that something is lacking.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in elementary school and loved it. There weren't as many fantasy books for children as there are now. I've read it a few times over the years, taking the trouble to get my own copy as it was out of print.
I read it again today. It's still a good book but I'm not the same person now so it doesn't speak to me in the same way it did when I was a child.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early summer and Charlotte and her sister Emma are on their way to school when they meet a strange boy. A boy who says he can teach them to fly. Thus begins a summer of wonder for the two girls and their schoolmates—but how will it end?