The People Could Fly: The Picture Book Book

Since the dawn of time I imagine every single parent who has ever lived has probably said at one time or another,

"There has never been a more difficult time to raise children in."

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?

If you live in my house you usually begin the conversation with a book. First because its something tangible that you can hold in your hand and show them. Second because the right books find the words for you, guide you toward truths that you have in your heart but can't articulate. 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.

That's what this book does. It opened a door for my family last night when we read it at bedtime. 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?"

Never say I don't use my Theater and Dramatic Literature degree folks.

This story is the title story in a book of African American folktales written by Virginia Hamilton in 1985. The original collection was showered in very much deserved awards and accolades and this particular story has acquired an almost mythic quality all on its own.

Its very, very easy to see why. It feels like something from the beginning of time. An ancient legend about Africans once gifted with the magic of flight who soared through the skies on beautiful black wings. Africans who lost those wings when they were packed into slave ships, sold and forced into lives of abject misery and oppression, but found them again in time to rise up and fly away from their masters to become beacons of hope for those without wings of their own.

You can imagine this story being told in whispers around cooking fires and in the desolate bunks in slave quarters, traded back and forth like a prayer. Something to dream of and for.

Leo and Diane Dillon who provided the original black and white illustrations that appeared in the collection have created simply epic paintings to accompany this edition. They're so rich and vibrant you just want to grab them up in your hands. There's an elegance to everything that really does suggest a kind of ancient nobility or even religious iconography. We stayed on each page even after I was done reading just to take it all in. They capture the joy of the flight from oppression and the horror of a life in slavery perfectly. There's an especially harrowing image of slaves trapped inside the hold of a ship where the fear and despair is so strong you almost have to force yourself not to look away.

The real gift here is the talk we had afterwards. We talked about what slavery has done to our country, how important stories like this are for everyone, why its important to learn the whole truth about our countries history, how important it is to recognize our privilege as white people, and maybe the most important thing, the need for us to take responsibility for the times when we engage in racist actions. That's a tough one to explain to kids and obviously it'll be an ongoing conversation since its something the husband and I are working on too and it never stops.

Its still hard. I struggle every day to balance telling my children how proud they make me, what good men I think they're growing up to be with the harder realities of what it means to be a white man in America. But books like this make it a little easier.

Gorgeous and powerful. A true literary treasure.