Carrie's Flight (8.5 square paperback): (1 Grandma's Closet)

Carrie finds a set of antique wings that Grandma left in the hall closet when she moved across town. If she can figure out how to make them fly, she can visit Grandma. Carrie's Grandma left four mysterious boxes in a closet marked: KEEP. Wandas, Fascinator, Dowse, and Feathers. These treasures help Carrie feel closer to Grandma. There's magic in love. And in the starlings they watch together.

Review :
"Carrie's Flight" is a beautiful exploration of a child's loving relationship with her Grandma and her dreams about flying. Carrie's Grandma had moved from her house across town, but she left 4 boxes marked KEEP in Carrie's closet. They were labeled Wandas, Fascinator, Dowse, and Feathers. perhaps because the starlings were migrating, Carrie chose to open the box labeled Feathers. What follows is magically conveyed through both story narrative and sensitive pastel illustrations. Even the text changes mysteriously to reflect its subject, like the word MurMurAtioN (all wavy like air moving), for a flock of starlings, which pulsated across the glowing afternoon sky. Listening to Grandma's responses through her computer, Carrie opens the Feathers box and discovers beautiful, purple, silver, and peacock colored wings that Grandma said had been in the family for a long time. After many false starts and much encouragement from Grandma, Carrie fitted the wings to her arms and began to fly like the starlings, whom she now understood. Carrie flew to see her Grandma in her house across town, and after she told Carrie, "The sky is ready," Carrie took off into the night. There are different levels of magic and belief in these pages. There are also many interesting facts about starlings. The delicate spell of these pages comes from a lovely weaving and interlacing of image and written word. Children who read "Carrie's Flight" will love the experience and dream of finding more in the other three forthcoming titles. -- Midwest Book Review - Children's Bookwatch -- Being a Grandmother, I could relate to this book, that I truly love. If I downsized and moved, I would love to leave behind boxes of treasures for my granddaughter to touch, so she could feel close to me. It would be magical to be able to leave feathers that she could put on and fly to me. These are the dreams we all share that make this book emotive and its beautiful illustrations by Francie Mion, so delightful. I also enjoyed the educational aspect at the end of the book about Starlings. I'm certain that many youngsters are taken to the sky, wearing imagination wings, when they read this book. -- Jill Smith -- I was drawn in by the depth of the emotional themes in Carrie's Flight and hope that you find it to be engaging too Amy Betz