Delilah's dream by Ian Trevaskis

Ill. by Janine Dawson. New Frontier Publishing, 2009. ISBN 9781921042232.
(Age: 3-5) Recommended. Picture book. Ambition. Adventure. Chickens. Delilah the chook has a dream, she wants to fly. She doesn't want to be like her sisters and just scrabble around for scraps, she wants to fly and have adventures. The other chooks scoff at her, deriding her dreams and telling her not to be silly. While the other chooks sleep, tucked away from Delilah, she keeps on dreaming of soaring like an eagle, of being amongst the stars.
One day a fox is seen in the vicinity of the chook yard. The chooks huddle together in their henhouse, their heads in the straw, not knowing what to do. Only Delilah takes steps. She climbs across the roof of the hen house, onto the tree and leaps across the gap between the chook house and the farmhouse, until she gets to the bell hanging in the verandah. She swings from side to side, waking the farmer, and so saves the day. She has flown after all.
A fable about following your dreams, this will be a delight to read out loud to young children. They will recognise the moral of the tale immediately and talk of other books which have a similar theme. Discussions will follow about their dreams and what they aim for in their lives, be it simply where they will go after school, to what they hope to do for a holiday to a bigger dream like that of Delilah.
The illustrations show the hen house on the farm with its cyclone fences, windmill and corrugated iron roof. The chooks and other animals will delight younger readers as they see how each group reacts to the threat of the fox, and their renewed friendship with Delilah.
Fran Knight