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Summary
Summary
Three-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Angela Johnson and New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long introduce readers to a band of under-celebrated World War II heroes--the Tuskegee Airmen.
All he ever wanted to do was fly.
With fleeting prose and transcendent imagery, this book reveals how a boy's love of flight takes him on a journey from the dusty dirt roads of Alabama to the war-torn skies of Europe and into the hearts of those who are only now beginning to understand the part these brave souls played in the history of America.
Author Notes
Angela Johnson was born on June 18, 1961 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended Kent State University and worked with Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) as a child development worker. She has written numerous children's books including Tell Me a Story, Mama, Shoes like Miss Alice, Looking for Red, A Cool Moonlight and Lily Brown's Paintings. She won the Coretta Scott King Author's Award three times for Toning the Sweep in 1994, for Heaven in 1999, and for The First Part Last in 2004, which also won the Michael L. Printz Award. In 2003, she was named a MacArthur fellow.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-A child recounts his great-great uncle's lifelong passion for flying-which began at age five with a leap from the roof of a chicken coop and climaxed with wartime flights as one of the Tuskegee Airmen. The man is depicted as a slender figure with distant eyes contemplating the wild blue yonder or, later on, posing with massive-looking, antique aircraft. The slightly misty look of Long's illustrations artfully evokes that sense of remembered times and matches the lyrical tone of Johnson's brief, poetic monologue. "He cried when they landed/because then he knew/what it was like to go/into the wind,/against the wind,/beyond the wind." A final view of the child and his uncle flying off into the "magical wind" in an oversize biplane caps this soaring double tribute to both the Second World War's still-underappreciated African-American pilots and to the profound longing to fly that impelled them.-John Peters, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The team behind I Dream of Trains masterfully presents a story of the Tuskegee Airmen, as light and graceful as the air in which they navigated their planes. A boy recounts his great-great-uncle's experience as one of these unsung heroes. Long's humorous early paintings show the young would-be pilot jumping from a hayloft, conveying his early love of heights and flight. Likening the very idea of flying to Heaven ("with clouds, like soft blankets, saying, `Come on in, get warm. Stay awhile and be a wind flyer too' "), Uncle makes flying seem so inviting to the boy, that readers will likely wish to be just like Uncle, too. When, as a Tuskegee Airman, Uncle finally puts his own dream into motion and his plane takes off for the first time, readers may well want to stand up and cheer. The occasion is all the more celebratory because of how rare it was for African-Americans to get an opportunity like this, as Johnson's poetic text subtly conveys: "Air Force didn't want us at first," Uncle says. (A closing author's note explains the founding and achievements of the airmen trained in Tuskegee, Ala.) Long's illustration of this momentous occasion features brushstrokes so vivid, they practically launch Uncle's plane right off the page. Both author and artist guard a careful balance between nostalgia and the timelessness of childhood aspirations. Together, they turn a quiet moment in history into a story that will send spirits soaring. Ages 5-9. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
This story, written in poetic prose, is about one African American young man who wants to fly ""into the wind, against the wind, beyond the wind."" He defies racial prejudice and accomplishes his goal when he becomes a Tuskegee Airman. Muted acrylic illustrations display the changing moods--from wistful to somber to triumphant--of this heroic saga. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In spare, lyrical prose and vibrant acrylic paintings, three-time Coretta Scott King Award-winner Johnson and acclaimed illustrator Long introduce readers to the WWII Tuskegee airmen, the African-American squadron that "distinguished themselves as the only escort group that never lost a single bomber to enemy fire." Johnson's young narrator tells the story of his great-great-uncle who so loved to fly that with "his arms flapping, he jumped off a chicken coop when he was five," went up with a barnstormer when he was 11 and went on to become a Tuskegee wind flyer in the war. This will no doubt inspire important conversations about history and race, but the heart of the piece has to do with the universal desire to follow our passions, overcome obstacles and realize our dreams. Nothing makes this clearer than Long's illustrations, which draw readers in, making them feel as though they too are gazing up into the perfect blue of the sky. Just as surely as the narrator and his uncle find magic in the clouds and the wind, readers will find plenty to marvel at in the pages of this compelling offering. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In spare, poetic lines, a young African American boy introduces his great-great-uncle, who was a Tuskegee airman. His uncle's love for flying begins in boyhood, when he catches air in jumps from haylofts and takes his first rides in a flying barnstormer. Later he becomes a Tuskegee wind flyer and serves in World War II, and his delight in piloting lasts his lifetime. Johnson introduces the history in oblique, pared-down words. Many children will need adult help to place the story in context, and they may want to talk about the story's references to war, including a scene of planes in combat. Long's acrylics beautifully extend the evocative words. Resembling WPA murals in clearly defined, rounded figures and realistic scenes, the artwork shows thrilling expanses of sky and gives a sense, in aerial views, of what it must feel like to touch clouds from an open aircraft. Pair this title with Lynn Homan and Thomas Reilly's The Tuskegee Airmen Story (2002). --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2006 Booklist
