Swing
📅 PublishedMarch 6, 2018
📖 FormatHardcover · 40 pp
👶 Reading Age4-8 years
📊 Reading LevelLexile AD440L (Adult Directed)
Read Aloud for Your Family
Press play, gather the kids, and let the story do the work.
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ABOUT THE CREATORS
About the Author and Illustrator
AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR
Michael Hall
NYT bestselling author and illustrator of Red: A Crayon's Story and My Heart Is Like a Zoo. Award-winning graphic designer.
Michael Hall
Michael Hall is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of Red: A Crayon’s Story, Perfect Square, and My Heart Is Like a Zoo. He is also an award-winning graphic designer. He lives in Minnesota.
Illustrator
Michael Hall
The illustrator of Swing and several other beloved picture books.
Who This Book Is For
The book is listed at ages 4 to 8. It works especially well for the kid who is on the playground and tired of being told they are too round, too loud, too different, or just wrong. The word the letters spell at the end is one a five-year-old can already read, which is the part that lands.
What Happens in the Book
It is recess. Four letters race to the playground to claim the swings. O is told it is too round. V is told it is from the wrong end of the alphabet. E is told it is a vowel and therefore not welcome. The four letters fight, exclude, and end up alone.
Then something small and kind happens, and the four letters come back together. When they finally land back on Earth, the letters spell one word that has nothing to do with the alphabet and everything to do with what just happened.
The four letters stop fighting and start swinging together, and the swing carries them high above the playground.
The letters notice the rest of the alphabet could not come with them, and the kindness turn starts there.
Why It Works for Kids
The book is short, but the put-downs are not soft. O is too round. V is from the wrong end of the alphabet. E is a vowel. These are exactly the kinds of lines that get used on the actual playground, which is the first reason older kids read along. The second reason is the resolution: when the four letters come back down, the kid can read the word before the page turn lands on it.
Michael Hall’s cut-paper collage art does the same job it did in Red: A Crayon’s Story and Perfect Square. Simple shapes, bright colors, and a visual joke that the kid can decode before the text catches up. The art also gives the letter characters faces that the kid can read as kids, which is the part that lands.
The book is short, but the put-downs are not soft. O is too round. — Swing
Learn More About This Book
Official & Community
Frequently Asked Questions
What word do the letters spell at the end?
The letters spell LOVE. The four letters that went up together come back down together, and the word is the answer to what just happened on the playground. The kid who can read the alphabet can read the punchline before the page turn lands on it.
Why do kids like this book?
The book does not feel like a kindness lesson. The letters argue and exclude the way real kids do, and the resolution comes in the form of a word the kid already knows how to read. Michael Hall’s cut-paper collage art does the same kind of work it did in Red: A Crayon’s Story: simple shapes, bright colors, and a clear visual joke.
Is the book funny?
Yes. The book is built on a series of small put-downs that kids will repeat back at the playground, which is the first laugh. The second laugh is the word the letters spell at the end, which the kid can predict before the page turn.
What books are like Swing?
Try Red: A Crayon’s Story and Perfect Square by Michael Hall, and the rest of his picture-book catalog. For similar anti-bullying message in a longer read aloud, try The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig, and Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry.
