When a swallow makes a promise it must be kept or the swallow dies. As autumn sets in on a Yorkshire farm, and the
swallows prepare to leave, Nidae, a courageous male bird, makes a promise to ten-year-old Jamie, who is slowly dying, that he will find a cure and return with it in the spring. So begins an
adventure that crosses continents, oceans and all the boundaries of emotion; fear, hope, sadness and joy, and forges a bond between a small bird, and a young island girl that is inspirational.

Jill Hopkins has studied the flight of swallows. She describes with unerring
accuracy their swift, low skimming over the morning meadows; the flight of the flock at a steady altitude on their annual migration; the aerobatics of the young swallows showing off and the hero’s brave solo flight to the Island of Smoke. (Swallows don’t like to fly long distances on their own.)

Long listed for the Rubery Book Award
Voted  to second place by the public for The People’s Book Prize 2011