Jeanne Birdsall's first picture book is a pleasant tale of the windy adventure of Flora and her little brother, Crispin. After Crispin gets into trouble inside the house, they are both sent outside to play. Because it is a very windy day, Flora puts on her "super-special heavy-duty red boots" to keep her from blowing away, and she pretends to not be worried about Crispin and his regular old purple boots. As the wind begins to carry him away, Flora must kick off her special boots and sail off after him. Riding on the wind, Flora is tempted to give in to the requests of the dragonfly, sparrow, rainbow, cloud, eagle, man in the moon, and the wind himself to take her little brother away. Does she really want to get rid of him? Though he does make a mess of her paints and gets into everything at home, Flora realizes that she loves her brother, and only wants to make sure they both get home safely. At Flora's insistence, the wind brings them back home, and the story happily ends as they enjoy some chocolate chip cookies together.
I thought that this was a lovely story that children would find enjoyable. The repetitive text is appropriate for younger audiences. Birdsall repeats, "If the wind lets you," in response to Flora wanting to take her little brother back home. A lot of children can also relate to an annoying younger sibling, and the nuisance that they can cause. Likewise, most children will appreciate the fantastic imaginative journey soaring on the wind and back to the safety of home again, just in time for some chocolate chip cookies. Parents will most likely appreciate how the story models the resolution of a sibling relationship.
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