The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

Like its predecessors, THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN follows a lonely but intrepid creature set apart from the rest of the animal world and halfway human. The voiceless swan Louis, named for Louis Armstrong, learns to play the trumpet, read and write, and get a job, before leaving most – but not all – of his acquired trappings of civilization behind to return to the wilderness. Highly praised by John Updike, who wrote that the book “glows with the primal ecstasies of space and flight, of night and day, of nurturing and maturing, of courtship and art. The universe remains chancy, but no one admits to having good luck.