By Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Ronald Himler
Fly Away Home is a touching story of a young boy, Andrew, and his father, who are homeless and living in an airport terminal. It's all about not being noticed, they say repeatedly. They stay out of trouble. Sleep sitting up. Move from terminal to terminal so they're never in the same spot two nights in a row. Clean themselves up in the bathrooms in the morning, when it's busy. Life isn't easy being homeless, but they get by. The father is a janitor that works on the weekends. Sometimes Andrew helps passengers carry luggage for small change, too. They're saving their money and hoping to move out someday.
This book shows a lot of the struggles of the Andrew. He feels like he is going to be stuck in that airport forever. But he remembers a bird that got caught in the terminal once. It never once gave up trying to escape, and eventually it made it through the automatic doors. He told it to "fly away home," and though he didn't hear it outside, he knew that it was singing when it escaped. He knows that someday he'll escape, too.
This book is very interesting because it offers a unique and genuine perspective that you don't usually see from picture books.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This sounds like a really interesting book. I think it would be a great book to incorporate into the classroom. I really like how you pointed out that the author compares the boy's situation to Andrew's life in the airport. I think it gives the reader hope for the boy. I agree that this sounds like an interesting perspective for a picture book, and I think it's important for students to see the various perspectives and situations that life presents.
ReplyDelete