FLYING HIGH

“Even though his head towered high in the air, Walter wasn’t quite content.” So the giraffe builds himself an airplane, callously tells his friend Sonny, a turtle, that “I don’t think turtles can stand flying as fast as my airplane will go” and takes off. He disregards the warnings of birds in flight that there’s a storm ahead, with predictable results: A lightning bolt demolishes his plane and he plummets into the lake—from which the loyal Sonny rescues him. The next plane, accordingly, has room for Sonny. While the story is nothing truly out of the ordinary and the translation from the Danish can be decidedly odd (“From sheer excitement, Walter got that sinking feeling that occasionally comes on after a great burst of enthusiasm”), Stamp’s illustrations hearken back to Bill Peet in line, palette and sense of humor. Diagrammatic spreads and vignettes help to advance the story while telling visual jokes, and it’s hard not to warm to the sight of the goggled Walter in his little red plane. Here’s hoping for more to hit these shores. (Picture book. 5-8)