Dancing City: I Am Dodo

I really need to review the stacks of books I already have before I start checking out even more books from the library. I am becoming overwhelmed. However, before I get to the back stock, I must tell you about this new book I just found:  I am Dodo: Not a True Story.

The dodo bird holds a particular place in our collective imagination. I'm not a anthropologist/sociologist/ornithologist, so I won't try to answer why that is. Maybe it is just the silly name. Maybe it's because we don't want the dodo to be extinct. In Kae Nichimura's I am Dodo: Not a True Story, we can indulge in the fantasy that at least one dodo is still walking around.... in New York City. In the city, in the face of naysayers, a lone professor holds on the belief that a dodo still exists. Little does he know that the bird is on his way. In the heart of the busy city, Dodo and his biggest fan strike up a charming friendship based on freedom, dancing and games of hide-n-seek.

One again, the city plays backdrop to a more intimate relationship; that of the Professor and his Dodo (there's a phrase you are sure not to see again). The busy urban population is not interested in the Dodo, they mind their own business or deny the existence of something right under their noses. The park plays a prominent role in the development of the Dodo and Professor's friendship -- a place more isolated than the crowded city streets, although Central Park is, in reality, far more crowded, than Nichimura's wonderful illustrations would have us believe.

Giving much weight to the oft-used phrase, "only in New York," I am Dodo: Not a True Story is a charming book, not to be missed.

Want More?
Visit the author's blog.
Read a review at The Book Chook.

Big Kid says: Don't return that book to the library.