A Bird in a Bathing Suit

This darling children's book 'A Bird in a Bathing Suit' by Dawn Mitchell gives children a look at what happens when we make fun of others. In this colorful book a group of children spot a bright blue bird wearing a red bathing suit. The children proceed to make fun of the bird pointing fingers and laughing. After all, birds do not normally wear bathing suits.

'A Bird in a Bathing Suit' takes the reader through different scenarios of what would be funny seeing a bird wear such as sunglasses, dresses, and baseball caps. The result of the taunting hurt the bird's feelings and he flies away. It is then that the children realize what they had done was wrong and in turn they feel bad also.

My four and seven year-old grandchildren thoroughly enjoyed this book as did grandma. The writing is simple yet a bit challenging for a seven year old and the four year old was enthralled with the bright colored illustrations and pictures of the bird in different outfits. The best thing about 'A Bird in a Bathing Suit' is it opened the door to discuss how wrong it is to make fun of others who may appear different than us.

A note from the author, Dawn Mitchell, "I'd like to teach children that our differences provide diverse perspectives which often result in fresh ideas, designs, and changes that impact us all." She certainly succeeded in doing that with my grandchildren.

The illustrator, Josh Will, did a wonderful job of showing the emotions of each character in the book with his brilliant drawings and it's no wonder he has done work for such clients as Hasbro, Mattel, and Band-Aid.

The combination of Dawn's rhyming words and Josh's colorful illustrations makes this the perfect children's book to read over and over for years to come.

Dawn is working on more stories and I hope they are as enjoyable, educational, and amusing as 'A Bird in a Bathing Suit'. There is a great moral to be learned by both young and old from the little blue bird's situation in 'A Bird in a Bathing Suit'!

I have not been able to find 'A Bird in a Bathing Suit' at any of our local book stores but it is available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble or by visiting the author's site 'A Bird in a Bathing Suit'.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review purposes but was not obligated to give a positive review. The above is my own opinion. Originally reviewed for BookPleasures.com

Title: A Bird in a Bathing Suit
Author: Dawn Mitchell
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.
ISBN: 9871432754044