Learning to Fly

I love this book. It has a good moral without being overly preachy or trite, it is really funny, and the illustrations are awesome. I'd say more, but thats all that needs to be said.

I first saw this book reviewed on TV in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. I would have bought it immediately but I was flying out in the AM. I tried to order it in German as soon as I returned home to no avail. It's now been translated to English and it's just as charming as it was in German. I highly recommend this book both for the short story line and the outstanding pencil drawings.

Beautiful in its simplicity. Funny, clever, and inspirational. It was a finalist for the picture book category of the Cybil awards.

All you need to make a penguin fly is a sharp pencil and a sharper wit. In absolute deadpan, Meschenmoser explains how he took in a penguin who'd crash landed one wintry day after other birds convinced it that it couldn't fly. The two bond over fish sticks and the penguin snuggles in his sink, and they team up to re-take the skies. Meschenmoser sketches himself in full slouch, scruffy beard and all, timing the penguin in a stress test in the dryer or launching it like an arrow. The book was originally published in German, and in translation it keeps its Teutonic sensibility in the way it takes its absurdity seriously. Even the happy ending -- a colony of penguins flies overhead -- has a degree of fatalism about it. Meschenmoser added only spot color to certain sketches, aiming for an expressionistic touch, and the spare layout underscores the story's stark realism.

If children's book publishers are on top of things then they know that there's been a shift in the wind. The hot new source of children's book reviews and reviewers? Weblogs, my friends. Weblogs are incredibly important in getting people aware of the hot new titles and trends in the field. And no picture book makes this any clearer than Sebastian Meschenmoser's, "Learning To Fly". If you look at the review of this book in Publisher's Weekly, you'll see that the professional reviewer hadn't a CLUE what to do with this book or (for that matter) any understanding of how popular it could become. Myself? I first heard about "Learning to Fly" because of weblogs. Several of them, entirely of their own accord, started reviewing this book and they were practically drooling all over it. Now if I had just looked at PW's review ("Don't penguins' actual talents, like deep-sea swimming, compensate for flightlessness?") I might have eschewed "Learning to Fly". Fortunately, I had a variety of sources from which to cull my information and the result was that I have had the delight of reading "Learning To Fly" for myself. And boy oh boy is it lovely. It's succinct, deeply silly (in all the right ways), and perhaps one of the best German picture books ever to grace our American shores. One day, a man meets a penguin. The two start to talking and the penguin reveals that not too long ago he was flying. The man points out that penguins can't fly and the bird accedes the point. Just the same, it didn't know that before it began flying on its own and it wasn't until a passing flock of birds alerted it to the fact that it crashed. Determined to help the little fellow out, the man takes it home, cleans it up, and together they set out to prove whether or not penguins are or aren't able to fly. This means testing the penguin in a variety of ways. Everything from a training program and exercise to attaching goggles and fireworks to its back. Then one day, as the penguin sits in a makeshift trebuchet, a flock of other penguins fly above. "Suddenly, my penguin stretched out his wings, pushed off, and joined them in the air". The last words as the man stands looking at his departing friend? "He flew pretty well... for a penguin". The book has several elements all working in its favor. You have the plot itself, which is charming. It could be cutesy or overly sweet, but there's something in Meschenmoser's tone that never allows the book to be anything but a straightforward record of the events that led to his penguin friend's boost in confidence. I don't know if it's the translation or if the author really is this dry a wit, but the book reads with a kind of deadpan humor you almost never get in children's books. This is complemented perfectly by the art. Instead of something cartoonish or childlike, all the artwork in this book is done in graphite. The penguin looks like a real penguin and the man looks like the author himself. There's alway