I loved this picture book. There was more text than I usually like in a PB, but it had a fresh, quirky, charming voice. It had some repetition too (cheep, and now?) to keep kids following along with the longer text. And what a wonderful story, to boot! ( )

Booklist: *Starred Review* K-Gr. 3. Stellina, a New York City finch, falls out of her nest, and somehow Holly, Pericoli's wife, hears her cheep. Holly hopes the bird's mother will find her, but when that doesn't happen, she takes the bird home. "And now? What's going to happen now?" runs as a refrain through the tale, as Holly finds ways to feed Stellina, and takes her to the studio where she dances. Stellina (Little Star in Italian) soon learns to feed herself, to fly, and to watch Pericoli as he works (alert readers will see him working on his illustrated adult book Manhattan Unfurled). A precise linguistic lyricism is at play: "Stellina learned how to fly . . and Holly was so excited . . . [Holly] knows how to dance, but not how to fly." The art is sophisticated and spare, but utterly accessible, as Pericoli uses negative space and deep perspectives to show the bird's nest in a traffic light, Stellina perched on his drawing pencil, or Holly's dancing from a bird's-eye view. Small readers will be utterly won over, and bigger ones will be enchanted. GraceAnne DeCandido
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This story is totally sweet, and I *love* the illustrations. They're simple and spare, which suits the story perfectly. ( )