Flap Your Wings (Beginner Books(R))

I checked out the book at a local library, and ended up adding the book to my collection. It's a beautiful and touching story that the parents of adopted chilren must have it.

I am thrilled to find this book back in print. Our family received a paperback edition many years ago as a gift. We have read it literally to pieces. Since receiving this gift, we have added three children to our family through international adoption. Like the bird family, we don't look alike, but we share the same nest. My husband and I live by Mr. Bird's philosophy, "If an egg is in your nest, you sit on it and keep it warm." Our answer to nosy questions concerning one of our children - "He's in our nest, so he must be ours." We are now entering a new phase of parenting. The first of our 6 children is moving out to begin life on her own. Once again Mr. Bird in his wisdom has given us direction: "It's getting too crowded up here. Junior has to leave the nest. It is time for him to fly away...We must show him how to fly." Of course our pride matches Mr. Bird as we watch her go, "(S)he's happy now! Just watch (her) swim" or fly or soar. Flap Your Wings is a classic. It celebrates love, family, differences, attachment, and letting go. Thank you P.D. Eastman for your fabulous book. I will read it for years to come.

While this is obviously a children's book, don't lose sight of the metaphor! Like Mr. and Mrs. Bird, we usually are surprised by this "creature" in our nest, but what the heck, we do our best to feed and nurture them. And when they get too big for the nest, physically, psychologically and emotionally, we do need to push them out and tell them to flap their wings. And guess what? They become exactly who they are supposed to be, despite our attempts to make them who we THINK they should be. This is one of my favorite graduation books, mostly for my friends who are pushing their children out of the nest.

I am so pleased to see this book back in print. It is a hilarious book to read aloud, the reader as well as the children will enjoy it. It's a meditation on parenthood among other things. Incidental to the fun, children will learn about the life of birds, and that other creatures are hatched from eggs as well, with a little ecology thrown in. A book no parent, teacher or child should miss!

I was excited to see this book being printed again. Eastman ( Go Dog Go ) had me laughing out loud the first time I read this to my kids. A bird couple comes home to find an enormous egg ( an alligator egg) in their nest. The trials and tribulations of hatching and raising the " baby bird" are lessons in parenting and work ethics, funny as they are. The couple trying to teach their "baby bird " to fly brings the book to a hilarious climax.