The Swift Who Took the Long Way (Ages 8–12)

Pip is a swift born three weeks too late, with one crooked feather that forces him to do the one thing swifts never do: land. His flock leaves without him, and the only way to catch them is sixty miles of canal, hedgerow and open road. With an ancient tortoise who has memorized routes he never took, a thieving jackdaw, a marmalade cat, and a girl called Clem, Pip sets out on the slowest journey a bird ever made.