Little gosling loves Suzanne Barton’s “The Dawn Chorus”. There’s no way we can only read it once; we must read it at least three times in a row, if we pick it up. We first read at the end of a quite long hike during which we did hear many different bird songs… maybe it had something to do with it.

A music-themed book, it features the self-discovery journey of a tiny nightingale, Peep, who  badly wants to be part of a choir of birds singing at dawn. Despite its ambition, practice and perseverance, singing at dawn just isn’t its thing. What the tiny nightingale did not know was that nightingales sing best at night. It takes a good friend to understand this reality and feel happy in its skin, singing beautifully at night for the entire forest. 

It’s a sweet story, with lovely, warm coloured, soothing illustrations, full of tiny, chubby birds and musical notes flowing and floating around. It’s a gentle introduction to birds and music themes, with specific vocabulary. With just a tiny little bit of imagination, one could almost hear the birds’ song. I almost feel sorry there’s no button to push anywhere for some trills.  Above all else, I like its message of knowing and being true and content with who you are. Little gosling is fascinated by the conductor of the chorus and is looking for it on all pages. He gets so happy when tiny Peep finds another nightingale friend and they sing together. My favourite part is hearing him say “nightingale”; it’s quite a complicated word. And he has such a sweet way of saying “Peep”…