Location, Location, Location! Home Tweet Home by Courtney Dicmas

THERE WERE TEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS: EDGAR, MAUDE, RUPERT, HELENA, WINNIE, CECIL, BEATRIX, ROSALIE, PIPPA, AND BURT.

"THIS NEST IS TOO SMALL!" GRUMBLED PIPPA.

"WELL, THE WORLD IS BIG, AND SO ARE WE," CHIRPED BURT.

A couple of fidgety fledglings decide it's time they flew the coop and find a more commodious roost of their own.

Burt and Pippa don't get too far out over the sea when they spot a comfy, cozy island.

"PERFECT!" CHIRPED BURT.

"IT'S BIG AND STURDY."

No, it's not. Their personal island turns out to be a sea turtle's back, and he's about to submerge.

Pippa and Burt quickly decide to wing it. But they're young, too young to realize that finding the perfect home means location, location, location.

A cheetah's back is soft and furry, but it moves too fast! A sea crocodile's back is too pointy and so is his toothy smile that invites them to stay... for lunch!

The flighty house hunters try out a kangaroo's pouch, a fox's tail, an octopus's, er, "head,"--but none of them quite meet their specifications. Where is their dream house?

In Courtney Dicmas' latest, Home Tweet Home (Doubleday Books, 2015), "there's no place like home "is the theme of this piquant reworking of the little runaway theme, as the young swallows decide that maybe Mom and Dad's house isn't so bad after all. Dicmas' tale may be familiar, but her illustrations are something special, with soft colored pencil lines and splotches of gouache and acrylic pastels, in a careful design that reveals with each page turn why Burt and Pippa's spur-of-the-moment choices are not so choice. This one is a natural to pair with P.D. Eastman's similarly themed classic, The Best Nest (Beginner Books(R)).