Earnest Sandpiper’s Great Ascent

In this heartfelt story about overcoming fear, two young sandpipers, coached by their parents (“BREATHE... TRY... JUMP... FLY!”), take off, legs trailing, into a rose-tinted sky. But their sibling Earnest balks and peers over the dune’s edge. “I think my feathers are too heavy for me,” he tells his mother. With a wing tip, Mom draws a heart in the sand, promising that “soon your heart will glow like the morning clouds. It will shine with desire and belief,” a feeling that will presage “magical things.” After his family departs to explore, Earnest pursues a floating yellow balloon with a red heart decoration “like the one my mom drew”—and he finds himself tangled up in its red ribbon tail, stuck as the tide comes in. Returning just in time, his family’s love unlocks both the glow Mom spoke of and the bird’s belief in himself. Naturalistic paintings by Ering (Walrus Song) portray Earnest’s anxious expression as he wrestles with the shiny, artificial object, so different from sand and sky. The stray balloon, an afterword explains, poses dangers to wildlife, giving this story a double theme of belief in oneself and care for the environment. Ages 3–7. (May)