Fly, Chick, Fly!

PreS-K—The soft artwork is the strength of this sweet picture book about a baby owl reluctant to leave the nest. Her siblings have already ventured out, but she frets about "scary" things such as rain, crows, and trains and refuses to go. Finally, though, her parents convince her to give flying a try, and she takes off. The book comes full circle when she is shown as an adult in her own nest with her own chick. The illustrations, rendered in pastels, are charming, particularly those showing the owlet's timidity as she peers out of the family's hole in a tree and hangs on to a branch for dear life as one parent tugs at her tail feathers. The text is simple and repetitive, reading like a song or poem, but it doesn't stand out as well as the illustrations do; it's merely satisfactory. Still, this book can be enjoyed simply for the antics of an endearing bird or appreciated for its larger theme of growing up.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR