"Flap Your Wings" Review

Flap Your Wings

Author: P.D. Eastman

Publisher: Beginner Books a Division of Random House

Copyright: 1969, 1977, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-80243-6

Accelerated Reader Book, reading level 2.0

With simple, bright illustrations, this colorful book is easy for a young child to follow.  Not too busy or overstimulating. I love the expressions on the little birds faces throughout the book and especially love Mrs. Bird's red scarf.   

The story starts out with a boy walking down a path near several different types of animals.  He finds an egg.  He sees an empty nest.  He decides the egg must have come from that nest and places the egg there.  When Mr. and Mrs. Bird come home she notices the egg. "That's not our egg," says Mrs. Bird. "Look how big it is!" I love what Mr. Bird has to say about that....."But it is an egg.  It's in our nest, " said Mr. Bird.  "If an egg is in your nest, you sit on it and keep it warm.  It doesn't matter whose egg it is."  As the story goes on, Mr. and Mrs. Bird keep this egg warm until it hatches and then raise "Junior" as their own.  They feed and feed and feed and feed "Junior".  Until finally "Junior" has grown so large he must be taught to "fly" and "flap his wings" for he is too large to stay in the nest.  

My son, 4 1/2 yrs, enjoyed this book.  He understood the humor and the mistake of the wrong egg being in their nest.  He really thought it was funny when we found out what was inside of the egg.  My 3 yr old daughter seems to understand how sweet it is that Mr. and Mrs. Bird take care of the creature that hatches from the egg.  The message of acceptance and love in this story, along with the humor has kept me reading it over and over to my children.  

This is also a good companion book to be read along with Guji, Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen.  Guji, Guji is a very similar story.  At home we read the two together and then compared them.  

On a scale of 1-10, I will give this one an 8.  This sweet little story is sure to become a favorite.  If you notice the copyright (1969), this book has been around for a long time, so it must have been a favorite to many over the years.  I wonder if I heard this story as a child?  

Do you have any favorites from your childhood?  

Review by Christy F. @ PrincessPinkk's Ponderings.