Kara Griffin’s Flitt’s Call: At Home on the Shores of Prince Edward Island

A story based around the behaviours of the birds allows for a gentle initiation to the realities of climate change and serves to awaken an awareness of environment as habitat.

Each year when the bank swallows return from their wintering grounds, the red sand banks come alive with flocks of small brown and white, fork-tailed birds who have come home to nest. As with so many animals today, climate change and human activity create challenges that impact their ability to survive and contribute to diverse and interconnected ecologies. Kara Griffin’s Flitt’s Call is a wonderful picture book that aims to educate young children about the bank swallow and its home on Prince Edward Island, and hopes to inspire children to protect the environment. A story based around the behaviours of the birds allows for a gentle initiation to the realities of climate change and serves to awaken an awareness of environment as habitat.

Flitt, a bank swallow has come back to the red sand cliffs of PEI as he has done each year, but he notices differences on arrival: dwindling food supplies, a receding shoreline, and human-made modifications. While he prepares his nest, he wonders why there are fewer returning swallows this year. Finding a mate, they will go on to nest in their little cave and produce three offspring. Worried about the future and the changes they continue to witness, the birds put a call out to the Earth for protection and to humans to protect the Earth. K. Shawn Larson’s water colour illustrations work well with the text to depict the habitat and behaviour of bank swallows as well as the distinct landscapes of PEI.

The companion Activity Guide for Flitt’s Call encourages children to further explore bank swallows and provides a wide variety of activities to help fledgling scientists hone their skills in geography, terminology related to scientific concepts (ex. habitat, nesting, diet), and writing, both creative and information-based. Building on concepts in the book, the activity book provides non-fiction reading supplements that provide greater detail, allowing for children to gain a deeper understanding of the bank swallow and the challenges it faces.

Flitt’s Call and the companion Activity Guide are a great way to teach children about such scientific concepts as habitat, food webs, migration, the lifecycle, and niches, and to initiate proactive practices that help to minimize the threat to animals and the environment. While the book and activity guide focus on how to help the bank swallow more specifically, the book also opens up the possibilities for discussion about how to help the Earth more generally. This is an ideal pairing for children in Pre-K to grade 3.

Kara Griffin was born and raised in Prince Edward Island, the home she loves. Her stories celebrate the beauty and wonder of nature and invite us to see and understand the world through our hearts. She hopes that Flitt’s story inspires readers to protect the natural world. Kara is also the author of The Sea That Sings To Me. Visit her at www.karagriffinstories.com

Prince Edward Island based watercolour artist K. Shawn Larson has been honing her art skills since she received her first ABC book. Both thrilled and intrigued by the paintings, Shawn saw alligators that could act, bears that could bowl, and cats that could catch. Shawn has worked on many projects to promote art in education over the years. Her art appeared in the 2008 book, Dust Bunny Boogie, and in 2021 she became a juried member of the PEI Crafts Council.

Publisher: Acorn Press (November 20, 2023)
Paperback 9″ x 9″ | 32 pages
Ages 4-8
ISBN: 9781773661506

Christina Barber

Christina Barber is a writer and educator who lives in Vancouver. An avid reader, she shares her passion for Canadian history and literature through her reviews on Instagram @cb_reads_reviews. She has most recently been committed to writing and staging formally innovative single and multi-act plays.