Flying Lessons

Terri L. Lyons is an elementary-school librarian, who also teaches in
the Distance Education Department and specializes in readers’ advisory
services at Mohawk College.

Flying Lessons is the story of a robin family hatching and then learning
how to fly. “Smallest baby bird,” the last to hatch, is reluctant to
leave the nest and learn to fly. While his siblings easily fly from the
nest to learn the next lesson in life—how to find worms—he remains
in the nest to be fed by the mother bird. Then one day a cat comes to
their garden. The father bird calls to the baby birds, and they fly away
out of reach of the cat. Frustrated, the cat climbs the tree to check
out the nest. The mother calls to the smallest baby bird to fly. He hops
out of the nest to sit on a branch. Finally, when he and the cat are eye
to eye and the reader fears for his safety, he flies!

The story is simple, suspenseful, and even educational. Young readers
will learn how baby robins hatch, why eggs are sometimes found
underneath a nest, and how the young robins learn to fly. The suspense
is conveyed through the illustrations and the layout; when the smallest
bird finally flies to get away from the cat, he proceeds one step—one
page—at a time.

Celia Godkin is a well-established children’s author, but perhaps a
beginning reader is not the format for her. Beginning readers should use
simple language over and over again. Vocabulary needs to be identified,
and it should reflect Grade 1 language skills. It is unlikely that a
Grade 1 student could read this book by herself. Recommended.