Michael Morpurgo
Dear Olly

For weeks, Olly and her older brother Matt, a high school graduate, have been watching swallows that have built a nest in their garage and are now incubating their eggs.

One day Matt reveals to his younger sister that he doesn’t want to study, but rather he wants to make people happy: He wants to be a clown, a real clown. And now he also knows where he wants to work, he wants to go where our swallows are going, to Africa.

His relatives are shocked by this decision, but Matt cannot be stopped. He finds a job in an orphanage in Africa, in an area with landmines where the war has raged.

And one of the young swallows from the nest accompanies readers on their flight to their wintering grounds in Africa.

An outstanding story set in Europe and Africa. Morpurgo, with his simple style, is a great narrator.

The illustrations by Christian Birmingham are very fitting.

Ages 12 and up. Can be read in one day.

GK

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