By the time I was done reading I was almost singing the words, something that inspired my youngest to ask "why are you reading in an accent?" It opened a door for my family last night when we read it at bedtime.
If you're very lucky the right words are married to images so profound in their beauty and execution that they elevate what you're reading to even greater heights of understanding for both you and your kids. Second because the right books find the words for you, guide you toward truths that you have in your heart but can't articulate. First because its something tangible that you can hold in your hand and show them. If you live in my house you usually begin the conversation with a book. What are we meant to tell our children when they come to us with questions about police shooting unarmed black men and women in the streets, at their front doors or in their beds? When they want to understand something as huge and important as the Black Lives Matter movement? How do you take a topic like slavery that has reached its rotted roots so far down into the foundations of our country it infects practically every single part of its daily life and turn into something they can even begin to understand? "There has never been a more difficult time to raise children in." Since the dawn of time I imagine every single parent who has ever lived has probably said at one time or another, I am not sure whether it was implied that some of them were dying as they were called up to fly, but it was definitely that intense. There are a lot of mentions of whipping slaves, and pictures of the whip, and of people who can barely stand up due to the hardships of slavery. I didn't realize it beforehand, but the content is a bit much for a 5 year old - I'm thinking maybe 8 would be the youngest I would have wanted to read it. The story manages to convey hope, resourcefulness, and pride - possibly the only things allowing enslaved people to survive - while at the same time acknowledging the unforgivable losses, and the heartbreak experienced even in the midst of victory. The beauty of this story is that flying is being used as an analogy for many things: of escape from slavery, of hope, of the lost African traditions and culture, of second chances. The references to eye-witnesses and how the story may or may not be true made it quite magical as a story/mythos. It is beautifully told and illustrated in this edition. This is an amazing tale that by some act of neglect I had never heard before.
Inspiring, heartbreaking, poetic, and intense.
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