When I was a child I dreamed about flying all the time. I never needed wings and the dreams were so wonderful that I was sorry when I woke up. Today's poetry picture book celebrates those dreams (or daydreams), allowing us to take to the air once more.
Give me Wings
Give me Wings
Poems Selected by Lee Bennet Hopkins
Illustrated by Ponder Goembel
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Holiday House, 2010, 978-0-8234-2023-0
For many people their favorite dreams are the ones in
which they are flying. In these dreams they can soar in the air without needing
any kind of mechanical aid to help them do so. With arms held wide, or with
wings attached to their arms, they are able to fly high above the ground and
feel the freedom of not being tied to the earth.
In this
delightful book, poet Lee Bennett Hopkins brings us a selection of poems that
take us, at least for a little time, up into the air. He encourages us to
imagine what it would be like if we were to wake up one morning to find that we
had wings attached to our arms. He tells us the story of a boy who, at one
time, was able to fly. Every night the boy lay on his bed and “willed myself to
fly.” It was hard work, and sometimes an hour would go by before he finally
felt himself float up above his bed. By using a “swimming motion” the boy would
make his way over to the window and then he would go out into the night sky.
Humans are not
the only ones who dream of flying. In one of the poems we meet a cat who is
just a “scruffy house cat,” but she “dreams all day / of wings and sky.” At
night the cat climbs a ladder and swings back and forth on a trapeze until it
is time to finish with “somersaults / to wild applause.”
The wonderful
collection wraps us with a poem by Lee Bennett Hopkins that describe how we
should put our wings away into a wing box where they will lie, safe and sound,
until we need them “for / tomorrow’s / flight.”
This is a book for
anyone who has dreamed (or daydreamed) about flying. Readers will enjoy a brief
time when they can take flight through these poems and explore hopes and dreams
that float as soft as downy feathers on the wind.
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