AR: 4.7

4.5 stars

This is a very charming story about the 6 school-age children who live in a tiny Dutch fishing village called Shora (in Friesland). They get to wondering about why storks settle in all of the other villages, but never Shora, and how they can attract the birds. They decide that they need a wagon wheel to put on a roof for the birds to nest in and the bulk of the story is of the children searching all over the village for a wheel. They end up developing relationships with some of the older members of the village and the entire community gets involved in the stork project.

My mom read this aloud to me and my siblings when we were young and I remember we all liked it a lot; I read it to two of my nieces (ages 6 and 8) and they really enjoyed it, too.

The only reason I'm giving it 4.5 stars instead of 5 is that some of the sentences are a bit lengthy and include interjections that make reading it aloud a bit awkward at points. I also wish there had been a quick pronunciation guide included at the beginning of the book to help with the Dutch names. I got most of them right but had to Google a couple. ( )

Why did the storks no longer come to the little Dutch fishing village of Shora to nest? It was Lina, one of the six schoolchildren, who first asked the question, and she set the others to wondering. And sometimes when you begin to wonder, you begin to make things happen. So the children set out to bring the storks back. They had to overcome many obstacles, including the fierce and threatening sea. But they wouldn't give up - and soon their determination and their vision got the whole village working, until at last the dream began to come true.

reviewed

I vaguely remember that this is about kids getting storks to nest in a Dutch village. I remember thinking at the time that the dialogue sounded too American rather than Dutch. ( )