Customer Reviews

Fly!

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This story about friendship is told artistically by distinguished illustrator Christopher Myers. A lonely boy, Jawanza, is drawn to the rooftop of his apartment building by birds, who by his observation, "spell letters and numbers in their flight." There he meets a man, Roderick Jackson Montgomery, who is friends with the birds and communicates with them by dancing with them. Jawanza is full of questions and learns that it takes time and patience to make friends with the birds. In the end he has his own dance with one of them. He finds beauty from what would appear to be a drab environment. The text is laid out in white vertical space adjacent to the gutter on each page. The watercolor illustrations, full of emotion and movement, fill the rest of each page. This well designed book creatively uses color in the telling of an extraordinary story.

Jawanza loved to spend his days looking out his open window, high up, near the roof and sky. From there he could see the children playing far below. Better yet, he could watch the birds flying from rooftop to rooftop, doing their bird dances across the sky. At times he shouted to them, "Hey, birds! Why you flying like that-all crazy bunched together-making pigeon clouds?" The birds never answered, but one day a voice from above called down to him. There was an old man on the roof, a Mr Roderick Montgomery the Three, dancing with the birds, and Jawanza just had to go up and investigate..... Christopher Myers, author of Wings, is back with another poetic and evocative picture book. His gentle, lyrical text, full of imagery and magic, is complemented by his marvelously bold, bright and expressive artwork, and little imaginations will soar as they pore over the joy in each picture. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, Fly is a special story of love, friendship and freedom that will transport kids up to the rooftop, and into another world.