I grabbed this book from the library yesterday afternoon amongst a whole stack to check out and read to Reason. As we've made our way through, this has been the stand-out so far. It is about a little girl and her baby brother who has inadvertently made himself a nuisance to her, and she gets her wish that the wind would carry him away, but immediately regrets it and chases after him. She decides that she wants to keep him after all and they get back home after their windy adventure. Reason loved the way the children got whisked up into the sky and met all sorts of interesting personages. The best part of this book to me has been the perfectly nuanced illustrations. Aside from how perfectly he captured the expressions, attitudes and postures of this pair of siblings, Flora and Crispin so uncannily resembled my own kids (even down to their hair!) that I had to show my husband. He got it immediately and he enjoyed the pictures as much as I did. The opening picture of Crispin knocking over Flora's paints at her little table and the closing picture of them eating cookies together might actually be worth buying a copy of this book. Picture BookFlora, is irritated, specifically she is irritated with her little brother as she gets ready to head outside on a windy day. In a flight of fancy her little brother is carried of by the wind. Without much thought Flora allows herself to be carried away as well. The big sister thought process is familiar to me and I found this account of Flora toying with ridding herself of her little brother to be funny. Her journey to realizing she would miss him is very carefully and heartwarmingly accomplished and I enjoyed it. It was a little old for my preschoolers but they were wonderfully engaged by the illustrations.
What do You think about Flora's Very Windy Day (2010)?
Lovely read aloud with beautiful illustrations.
—Kathleen
