Somewhere Else

K-Gr 2—A flightless bird gets a chance to see the world in this gentle picture book. "George Laurent wasn't like most birds." While his feathered compatriots travel the world, flying north and south, taking the bus, even booking vacations through a travel agency, George appears content to stay home and bake pastries. Then one lonely winter, Pascal Lombard, a bespectacled bear, arrives looking for a warm place to stay. He quickly sees through George's excuses—George would actually like to travel, but never learned to fly. Fortunately, Pascal has "an uncanny knack for solving problems" (not really), and is "remarkably good with his hands" (also false). Failing to teach George to fly, the two friends build a hot-air balloon instead and take off for all the places George has missed. The world is much bigger than they ever imagined, but home is where the pie is, so they head back for pastry and plan their future adventures. Gordon's narrative feels longer than necessary, and could benefit from stronger threads tying the story together. Neither a friendship saga nor simply a tale of leaving home to see the world, in the end, it's a blend in need of definition. Fortunately, charming watercolor, pencil, and crayon drawings complemented by vintage cut-paper images elevate the text, providing an old-fashioned sensibility and a childlike simplicity.