Flap Your Wings (Beginner Books(R))

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.

I'll start with saying our child loves this book. It's written very simply and the pictures are all relatable for a young child. However, the writing and art are very dated and offensive. The entire story, the father bird is dismissing the concerns of the mother bird and literally "mansplaining" everything throughout the book. It is essentially a story of a father forcing his wife to care for someone else's child despite her reservations. Then, instead of accepting the differences of the new baby, they push it out of the nest to be with its own kind. There are several ways to read this subtext but it's all offensive from both a racial and gender standpoint. Finally, in the art, the mother bird is always unhappy, distraught, etc while the father bird is always shown as happy and carefree.

We have hidden the book from our child in hopes that they stop asking for it, we hate it that much. I'm not a huge PD Eastman fan but have never felt any of the other stories we have are offensive or sending the wrong message before. Consider something else.

I had this book in paperback form for my own children and read it to them so many times that it was a bit tattered for my granddaughter... so I ordered the hardback and am so glad to have a more durable version. She is two now and absolutely loves it. It is the sweetest story of a "bird couple" raising an alligator that hatches from an egg put mistakenly in their nest by a well-meaning boy, and all their hard work and encouraging advice to their alligator baby as he gets ready to leave the nest. It's sort of a story of "loving what's different" but that's a subtle message, and if you're looking for messages, the other might be "we are all made to shine in a different way", since the alligator baby eventually jumps from the nest, unable to fly, but when he lands in the water, the father bird says "just look at him swim!". Love it!

Ok, if you're one of those that look for the little Seuss badges on your books and expects some level of quality, you won't be disappointed here. There are no fancy rhymes here, just a great story with great illustrations. After just panning a couple Seuss books (Hooper Humperdink and I Am Not Going to Get Up Today), I felt I needed to prove I'm not a hopeless crank. This book is a pleasure to read on many levels: 1) It follows a simple storyline that is engaging (kids puts an alligator egg in a bird nest and the surprised inhabitants become de facto parents of the outsized babe until it falls to its real home upon attempting its first flight) 2) the illustrations feel timeless to me and 3) as long as you're reading this a few dozen times to your impressionable little ones, the story might as well contain some redeeming element to it -- the not overdone message here being that a living thing is worth taking care of even if it doesn't look like you. You won't mind reading this one a dozen times in a day!

This is a cute story with good ethics and characters. Our 3 kids loved it... my wife and I must have read it 5,000 times. Now that we have a granddaughter, we wanted her to enjoy the same story that her daddy did!

This is a favorite of my daycare kids. When Mr. and Mrs. Bird discover a strange egg in their nest they try to hatch it. Mr. Bird is a delight to read. He says through the whole book it doesn't matter if it's not their egg, they still take care of it, it doesn't matter if baby alligator doesn't look like them, they still need to feed it. It doesn't matter if the baby alligator can't fly because he's happy in the water. I can't praise the book more. It's a fun easy read.

My 20 month old and I love this book. We love the story. The book is not only fun to read, simple words. It's also educational. This book teaches animal names. Sizes, such as too big, too small, too crownded etc.

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.

Flap Your Wings was written by P.D. Eastman and was originally published in 1969, but I think our Best Book Club Ever edition was published in 1979. Our particular copy has my husband’s name in it. Most of our Best Book Club Ever books used to be his, but very few have his name in them.

Flap Your Wings is the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bird, who return to their nest to find a strange egg in it. When the egg hatches, they are surprised to find a strange creature in it (a baby alligator). They are not sure that their baby is a bird, but it is in their nest, so they feed Junior everything from berries to centipedes. Junior’s appetite never diminishes, and he grows very quickly. Junior is too big for his nest, and it is time for him to flap his wings and fly. But will an alligator be able to fly like a bird?

P.D. Eastman also wrote Are You My Mother? and Go Dog Go, among other classic children’s stories. He has a fairly recognizable style. The illustrations make good use of color, and they’re fun- Mrs. Bird has an adorable kerchief, and Mr. Bird has some hilarious facial expressions. For most of the book, Junior barely fits in the nest, but doesn’t seem to be bothered about this at all.

My girls loved this book. They knew right away that the egg contained an alligator, and they loved watching Junior eat all of those delicacies that Mr. and Mrs. Bird brought for him to eat. They were not surprised by the ending, and they said that this was a nice story. As a parent, I think this book has some lovely messages; the Birds took care of Junior even though they knew he wasn’t a bird; he was their baby, and they loved him regardless of what he looked like. Children’s literature can be a little too snarky (albeit realistic), so it’s nice that Junior didn’t eat his adoptive parents.

I would recommend Flap Your Wings. Unlike most of the Best Book Club Ever books, this one is actually still in print, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a copy. This book will appeal to preschoolers and children in the early years of elementary school.

This is one of my favorite books from childhood. It's about a husband and wife bird who find a large egg in their nest. They decide to care for it even though it doesn't look like their egg. It's a really cute story about caring for your "child" no matter how big they get or how much they eat you out of house and home! It's hard cover and the same size as the Dr. Seuss books. PD Eastman wrote a number of books, and I love them all. There's no rhyming or nonsensical words like in Seuss. Just a great easy to read story with good illustrations and a great message. I couldn't find it in any Barnes & Noble so I'm thankful it's available on Amazon. I bought two copies!