The Boy and the Swallows

Leo, a curious boy living in a small house at the edge of a village, always keeps a green notebook and pencil with him. One sunny spring day, he hears cheerful twittering overhead and sees a flock of swallows with glossy blue-black backs, white bellies and rust-red throats return to the sky. He writes down the date, March 21, and hurries to tell his grandparents next door. Grandma marks the family calendar, while Grandpa opens a drawer to show Leo the little notebook where he has recorded the swallows' arrival year after year. Together they add the new date, and Grandma bakes a small cake to welcome spring.

As the season turns, Leo watches the swallows build a nest of mud and straw under the eaves and raise their young there. Sitting with Grandpa on the porch, he learns that the birds catch insects in midair, arrive almost like clockwork each year, and fly far south in winter. Leo decides to make his own calendar, which Grandma hangs in the kitchen beside hers. This gentle tale by Çınar BİBER follows a boy learning patience and observation, and it can be read on Masalcı Baba.