Delilah's Dream by Ian Trevaskis

New Frontier Publishing, 2009. ISBN 9781921042232.
Picture book, Ages 3-5. Delilah the chook has a dream, she wants to fly. She didn't want to be like her sisters and just scrabble around for scrap, she wanted to fly and have adventures. The other chooks scoffed at her, deriding her dreams and told her not to be silly. While the other chooks slept, tucked away from Delilah, she kept on dreaming of soaring like an eagle, of being amongst the stars. One day a fox was seen in the vicinity of the chook yard. The chooks huddled together in their henhouse, not knowing what to do. Delilah took steps, she climbed across the roof, onto the tree and leapt across the gap between the chook house and the farmhouse, until she got to the bell hanging in the verandah. She swung form side to side, waking the farmer, and so saved the day. She had flown after all.
A little fable about following your dreams will be a delight to read out loud to young children. They will recognize the moral of the tale immediately and talk of other books which have a similar theme. (A small point, my chooks always roosted; I have yet to see chooks roosting in a box!)
Fran Knight