Birds Can Fly and So Can I: A Giraffe Soars from Dreams to Reality by Noa Nimrodi Illustrated by Tamir Lichtenberg

Synopsis:
Birds Can Fly and So Can I is a charming and engaging book about the joy of dreaming and the thrill of achieving cherished goals. With endearing rhyme and spectacular illustrations, this book captivates its readers as they watch adorable animal buddies "clap with glee and chirp with praise" in support of Giraffe's dream to take flight. Birds Can Fly uses stunning artwork and witty verse to deliver its message about developing undiscovered talents. With innocence and appeal, it teaches children to stretch themselves to reach new heights and to cheer others on as they do the same. (Age 3+)

My thoughts:
I received this book from Bostick Communications for review purposes.  This story is cute and easy for children to relate to.  The giraffe sees all the birds in the sky and wishes that she could fly with them.  When she goes to sleep for the night she dreams that her spots become wings and she can fly.  She takes her friends along with her on her neck, and even when she becomes tired, she still sings about her joy for all to hear.

The way each of the lines rhymes makes it easy to read and it flows well.  Rhyming books always seem to be a hit with my children as well.  The rhythm of this book makes it fun to read. I was a bit thrown by the lack of punctuation through.  It seems like each line should end in either a comma or a period.  The lack of punctuation is not something either of my older children seems to notice however. 

The message was portrayed in an easily relateable way.  Believing in oneself, going for your dreams, and remembering to be thankful for each day.  These are things we all need to hear so it is heartening to have them in a book where children will be excited to read because they like the story.  The illustrations were very nice too.  The author and illustrator are cousins who grew up together in Israel.  The author now lives with her family in California, but she is also an artist.  The way the birds are drawn in the story is the same way she taught him to draw when they were children.  I liked that information from the back of the book, it just added something special to the story behind the way the book came into being, made a connection for me to the author and illustrator.  This book was translated from Hebrew to English.  I wonder if the Hebrew version also rhymes.

Product details:Birds Can Fly and So Can I by Noa Nimrodi

ISBN: 978-0-9794805-1-5
Publisher: Grassroots Publishing Group
Date of publish: May 30, 2011
Pages: 32
S.R.P.: $12.95