The Way Back

Come See the Fair

A Face Like Glass

Ring of Fire: Century Quartet

The Search for WondLa

The Ghosts of Heaven

The Star of Kazan

Once

Kraków, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Łania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. She’s alone.

And then Anna meets the Swallow Man. He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when the soldiers in the streets look at him, they see what he wants them to see.

The Swallow Man is not Anna’s father—she knows that very well—but she also knows that, like her father, he’s in danger of being taken, and like her father, he has a gift for languages: Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, even Bird. When he summons a bright, beautiful swallow down to his hand to stop her from crying, Anna is entranced. She follows him into the wilderness.

Over the course of their travels together, Anna and the Swallow Man will dodge bombs, tame soldiers, and even, despite their better judgment, make a friend. But in a world gone mad, everything can prove dangerous. Even the Swallow Man.

Destined to become a classic, Gavriel Savit’s stunning debut reveals life’s hardest lessons while celebrating its miraculous possibilities.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

The Way Back

Gavriel Savit, 2020

Come See the Fair

Gavriel Savit, 2023

A Face Like Glass

Frances Hardinge, 2012

Ring of Fire: Century Quartet

Pierdomenico Baccalario, Leah Janeczko, 2006

The Search for WondLa

Tony Diterlizzi, 2009

The Ghosts of Heaven

Marcus Sedgwick, 2015

The Star of Kazan

Eva Ibbotson, 1999

Once

Morris Gleitzman, 2005