WHEN DONKEYS FLY!

In this weak import, a donkey’s quixotic dreams of flight are frustrated until a canine friend suddenly remembers the large balloon so conveniently caught in a nearby tree. Fred the donkey’s vision impels fellow animals to confess their own dreams, but despite his heavy-handed platitudes—“Everything worthwhile takes time. Maybe if you practiced every day, you would have won that race”—he’s the only one who keeps on trying, donning one pair of wings after another to no avail. Finally even he gives up, which spurs Ronnie the dog’s flash of inspiration. There’s a lesson here, somewhere. Illustrated in colors as thin and watery as the moralistic narrative, this barely leaves the ground next to such similarly premised tales as Christoph Heuer’s Lola and Fred (2006) or Hans de Beer’s Little Polar Bear and the Big Balloon (2002). (Picture book. 6-8)