Product Description

Caruso is afraid to fly.
And that's a big problem.
Because he is a bird.

One night
a wild gust of wind
blows Caruso
off his perch
and across
the stormy sky to
Sophie's window.
Who is Sophie?

Sometimes, just like Caruso,
you will find a friend
when you least expect it.
And sometimes a
wonderful friendship
can make you want to try
something you didn't think
you could do.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1744264 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1–Fear of getting lost in the clouds or falling out of the sky keeps Caruso, a young pigeon, from attempting to fly. One evening, a strong wind sweeps him off his rooftop home and deposits him on the ledge of another building. The next day, Sophie, a dog, discovers him sitting outside her window and realizes that this fledgling needs help. She takes charge and carries the timid bird back to his parents. Several mornings later, he senses that the time is right to try his wings. He is elated with his newfound ability, which means that he can visit Sophie whenever the mood strikes. Watercolor illustrations in several sizes and revealing different perspectives depict a dove-colored hatchling and a fluffy brown puppy. With more dialogue and less character development, this story is not as engaging as Keller's Farfallina & Marcel (Greenwillow, 2002). However, it has value as a tale about friendship and encouragement, and the additional theme of a late bloomer ultimately mastering a skill increases its appeal.–Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
PreS-Gr. 2. Little pigeon Caruso is terrified to fly. Afraid he'll get lost or fall, he is content to stay near the rooftop coop with his parents. Then a wind swoops him into the air and spirals him through the city. It finally drops him outside a window, where he meets a friendly dog, Sophie. After hearing Caruso's story, Sophie helps him get home, and carrying the bird on her back, she travels through the streets, into the elevator, and up to Caruso's parents. One morning Caruso wakes up with a new confidence: stepping to the roof's edge, he beats his wings and flies. His first stop? Sophie's window. Keller uses cheerful, airy yellows and blues that echo the story's gentle, empowering tone in her uncluttered watercolors scenes, often shown from a bird's perspective, which will show well to an audience. Written in appealing, short, rhythmic sentences, this is a fine choice for group sharing; pair it with Helen Lester's Something Might Happen (2003), another story about overcoming fears and finding help from friends. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Holly Keller is the creator of the enormously popular Farfallina & Marcel, three books about Horace the leopard, and several books about the feisty pig Geraldine, as well as Pearl's New Skates and What a Hat! In applauding her work, School Library Journal noted that she is "an author/artist who truly understands children." Holly Keller lives in New Haven, Connecticut. In Her Own Words...

"Although I didn't realize that I was launching a wonderful career that would develop many years later, I wrote my first book for children when I was a senior at Hunter High School in New York City. Accepting the offer of my Latin teacher for me to do an extra translation to improve my grade, I produced a fully illustrated dummy of Little Red Riding Hood-in Latin, and set in the appropriate period of history. I also didn't know that it would be a long time before my artistic and intellectual interests would work together side by side quite so neatly again.

"I went to Sarah Lawrence College planning to study art, and ended up with a concentration in American history. I earned a Master's degree in history at Columbia University but never gave up my longing to draw and paint. Some years later I took a class in printmaking at Manhattanville College, and it was there that everything started to come together. I was working on a series of etchings illustrating a tale by Rudyard Kipling, and my very wise teacher, John Ross, suggested children's books.

"By then I was the mother of two small children and lived with my pediatrician husband in a rural town in Connecticut. I used whatever quiet hours I could find to put together a portfolio, and what little energy remained to take a course in illustration at the Parsons School of Design. I arrived at Greenwillow in 1981 with a pile of drawings for stories that existed somewhere in my head. Susan Hirschman pulled one out and told me to go home and write the story -- in a week, no less! Well, somehow I did it, and the sense of unity I had felt back in Latin class was mine again.

"Since that first book, which was called Cromwell's Glasses, there have been many, many stories. Some come from my own childhood (frequently changed just enough to make them turn out more to my liking!), some come from the experiences of my children, and, more recently, some have come from the places to which I have traveled.

"In all the years that I have been writing and illustrating children's books, it has never felt like work. Each new book brings me to a place I have never been before, and I am always excited and happy to be there."