Swan: The Girl Who Grew by Sidura Ludwig
A Review by Naomi MacKinnon
I was fascinated by Anna Swan as a child. I poured over photos of Anna, trying to learn something from them but came away unsatisfied. I think what I was looking for so long ago was a way of knowing what Anna herself was experiencing. I read that she lived from 1846-1888, that she grew to be 7 feet 11 inches tall, that she joined the P.T. Barnum Circus where she met her tall husband and toured the US and Europe. All this I learned from what I read, but it still didn’t satisfy me. What I wanted to know was: Who was she? What was her family like? What was her life like? Was she happy? Sidura Ludwig’s book has finally been able to help me imagine the answers to some of these questions, and it can do the same for other curious children and adults.
Ludwig’s middle grade novel is written in verse, a style that works well for its purpose: the telling of Anna’s story through her own eyes, encompassing all the thoughts and feelings going through her head as a daughter, a sister, a student, and a girl who stands out in her small community near the northern shore of Nova Scotia.
“My head aches
when I ponder the possibility of
God’s mistakes
that maybe when he built me
something went amiss
I sit up slowly those mornings
I let the sun guide me
in how to rise
I breathe in and out
slowly
to remember that my lungs know
how to work on their own
my heart beats
without me telling it to
my head pounds
but that just means that it’s there
sitting on my neck
that I’m here
sitting up in my bed
trying to be grateful even if I am
a mistake.”
Anna is twelve years old in this novel, an age that brings many changes and revelations for her. At twelve, Anna is already seven feet tall and the subject of much discussion in the region. She wishes more than anything she could just be like other girls: that she could wear girls’ sizes rather than her father’s patched together hand-me-downs; that she could continue to sleep upstairs with her sister Maggie without worrying about breaking through the wooden stairs; that she could sit in a regular desk at school rather than the one her father has to adjust to fit her growing body. Anna worries that she will never stop growing.
“I’m still the first person anyone sees
I’m still as loud as a foghorn
even when I say nothing at all.”
I loved reading about the caring people in Anna’s life: her parents, her grandmother, and her siblings. She needs them to buffer the effects of the bullies and gossips who are also in abundance. But it is her own integrity and courage that sees her through the hardships and pushes her to use her differences to get ahead in the world rather than to hide away. (Further struggles beyond the scope of this book are mentioned at the end where the author writes about the biography of Anna Swan as well as the history of the region in which the book is set.)
“I don’t like the way that sounds
I am not a case
to be carried around
I am not something to be studied”
“I am not a case
But maybe I could be more than a girl
for whom life always has to be
adjusted.”
“All my life I’ve only ever known
limits
Potential feels like
an open sky”
Swan: The Girl Who Grew is a novel full of wisdom and heart and an appeal to embrace yourself as you are. There are moments of hurt and despair, but also of pride, joy and kindness.
“But it’s a beautiful day. The sun not only
shines through Grandmother’s preserves
but also through the leaves
so that the trees look like they are on fire.”
About the Author
Sidura Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed Canadian author who has been a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and a runner-up in the Little Bird Short Story Contest.
About the Reviewer
Naomi MacKinnon lives in Nova Scotia with her husband, three kids, a dog, three cats, and a bunny. She works in the children's department at the beautiful Truro Public Library where she loves to read all the picture books and play with the puppets. She blogs about (mostly) Canadian and Atlantic Canadian books at Consumed by Ink.
Book Details
Publisher : Nimbus Publishing Limited (Sept. 10 2024)
Language : English
Paperback : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 1774713217
ISBN-13 : 978-1774713211