Flap Your Wings Read online

  Copyright © 1969, 1977, 2000 by Random House, Inc.

  Copyright renewed 1997 by Mary L. Eastman, Peter Anthony Eastman, and Alan Eastman. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Originally published in slightly different form as a Random House Early Bird Book in 1969 and as a Random House Pictureback® in 1977.

  www.randomhouse.com/kids

  eISBN: 978-0-375-98449-5

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77 87822

  BEGINNER BOOKS, the Beginner Books logo, RANDOM HOUSE, and the Random House colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  v3.1

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  First Page

  An egg lay in the path.

  A boy came down the path.

  He saw the egg.

  He looked around.

  He saw flamingos and frogs,

  and turtles and alligators.

  “Whose egg is this?” he called.

  But nobody answered.

  Then the boy looked up.

  He saw an empty nest in a tree.

  “Here is an egg without a nest,” he said,

  “and there is a nest without an egg.”

  The boy climbed the tree.

  He put the egg

  in the nest.

  Then he went away.

  Mr. and Mrs. Bird came home.

  They were surprised to find

  an egg in their nest.

  “That’s not our egg,” said Mrs. Bird.

  “Look how big it is!”

  “But it is an egg. It’s in our nest,”

  said Mr. Bird.

  “If an egg is in your nest,

  you sit on it and keep it warm.

  It doesn’t matter whose egg it is.”

  “All right,” said Mrs. Bird.

  “But I wonder what kind of bird

  will come out of that egg.”

  They took turns keeping the egg warm.

  First Mrs. Bird sat on it.

  Then Mr. Bird sat on it.

  And sometimes,

  because it was so big,

  they both sat on it.

  One day Mrs. Bird heard

  a squeaking noise.

  “Help!” she said.

  “This egg is squeaking!”

  Mr. Bird came back to the nest.

  He listened to the egg.

  “The egg is not squeaking,” he said.

  “It’s our baby that is squeaking.

  He is ready to come out of the egg.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Bird waited.

  The egg started to crack.

  Then it cracked some more.

  And there was the baby!

  Mr. Bird was very excited.

  “It’s Junior!” he shouted.

  “What a beautiful baby!”

  Junior opened his mouth.

  It was a big mouth.

  It was full of teeth.

  “That’s the funniest-looking baby

  I ever saw,” said Mrs. Bird.

  “Something is wrong.

  I don’t think he’s our baby at all!”

  “He’s in our nest, so he must

  be ours,” said Mr. Bird.

  “His mouth is open.

  That means he’s hungry.

  When your baby is hungry,

  you feed him.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Bird went away

  to get some food for Junior.

  Mr. Bird brought

  a pink worm.

  Mrs. Bird brought

  a green one.

  Junior ate both worms

  in one gulp.

  Then he opened

  his mouth wide again.

  “We have to get Junior

  lots more to eat,”

  said Mr. and Mrs. Bird.

  Hour after hour, day after day,

  they brought food for Junior.

  Mrs. Bird got berries and cherries.

  She got butterflies and caterpillars.

  She got dragonflies and mosquitoes.

  She got ladybugs and tiger beetles.

  Mr. Bird got crickets and spiders.

  He got grasshoppers and snails.

  He got red ants.

  He got black ants.

  He got centipedes, too!

  “What kind of bird

  eats so much?” said Mrs. Bird.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Mr. Bird.

  “He’s still hungry

  and we have to feed him.”

  Weeks went by.

  Junior never stopped eating.

  And he never …

  … stopped growing.

  He grew bigger …

  and bigger …

  and bigger!

  Finally Junior got so big

  that Mr. Bird said,

  “It’s too crowded up here.”

  “Junior has to leave the nest.”

  “It is time for him

  to fly away.”

  “You are right,” said Mrs. Bird.

  “The time has come.

  We must show him

  how to fly.”

  Mrs. Bird pushed

  and pushed.

  Mr. Bird showed Junior how to fly.

  “Jump into the air like this,” he said.

  “Then flap your wings.”

  Junior got ready.

  He took a big breath

  and jumped.

  Up … up … up into the air

  he went.

  “Flap your wings!” yelled Mrs. Bird.

  “Flap your wings!” yelled Mr. Bird.

  Junior flapped and flapped.

  But it didn’t do any good.

  He didn’t have any wings!

  Down … down … down went Junior.

  Down into the water.

  SPLASH!

  It was cool and wet in the water.

  It was just right for Junior.

  “You know,” said Mrs. Bird,

  “I don’t think Junior was a bird at all!”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Mr. Bird said.

  “He’s happy now.

  And just look at him swim!”

 

 

  P. D. Eastman, Flap Your Wings

  (Series: # )

 

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