Review by Booklist Review
Best friends Mia and Ben live beside a lake, and they enjoy making and racing planes together. But Ben's family is moving far away. In autumn, they swap planes and sadly say goodbye. When winter comes, they're still missing each other. Sad and lonely, hurt and angry, Mia takes the plane Ben gave her and smashes it to the ground. In her dreams that night, the magically repaired airplane takes her on a flight across the lake, and the next day, she receives an unfinished plane from Ben, who asks her to make the wings. Both friends feel reassured that not even an ocean could keep them apart. Helmore's spare, expressive text gives the children's close friendship the respect it deserves in this heartfelt story of love, separation, and reconnection. Created with digitally enhanced painted elements, the handsome illustrations feature the simplified, poignant figures of the earnest children within settings that are notable for their subtle patterns, textures, and color shifts. A quiet, comforting picture book that will resonate with its audience.--Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Mia and Ben, best friends who live "side by side on the edge of a great, wide lake," do just about everything together-- sailing, swinging, and, best of all, making paper planes. The children, large-headed and doll-like in softly brushed paintings by Jones, are shown playing joyfully in an idyllic community rich with leafy trees and rolling hills. When Ben moves "to a new home, a long way away," the friends are devastated, and Mia in particular struggles to cope ("Hot tears fell from her eyes"). Helmore modulates emotions well as the girl's loneliness turns to resentment: "Mia took the plane Ben had given her and smashed it on the ground./ She went to bed, feeling hurt and angry." A nighttime fancy--in which Mia and Ben fly in each other's planes above the lake ("They swooped/ and skimmed/ and soared")--and a special package lead to a satisfying resolution, proving that distance need not ruin a strong friendship. Expansive and warm with emotion, Jones's illustrations lend dreamy poignancy to Helmore's straightforward prose. A familiar childhood challenge surmounted with well-pitched emotional resonance from the creators of The Snow Lion. Ages 4--8. (Mar.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--Two friends learn how to continue their friendship after one of them moves away. Mia, a dark-skinned girl, and Ben, a white boy, are best friends whose favorite activity is making planes. In winter, they race their creations with the geese. In summer, they fly them from atop hills. Their goal is to build a plane strong enough to "fly across the lake." But one day, Ben announces his family is moving, and after exchanging planes, the two friends part. In sadness and frustration, Mia smashes Ben's gift. That evening, she dreams she is flying in the repaired, greatly enlarged plane. She sees Ben flying toward her and together they "swooped, and skimmed, and soared" in the sky. The next morning a package containing a wingless plane arrives from Ben. He asks Mia to construct the wings, and when it's ready for flight, it soars higher than any plane Ben and Mia have "ever made before." The illustrations, executed in paint and edited in Photoshop on different colored backgrounds, depict the friends and an ever-present dog in muted hues. VERDICT Pair this story with Libby Gleeson's Half a World Away for group sharing about ways to deal with separation and other disappointments.--Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Can a friendship survive an overseas move?This is the story of Mia and Ben, two friends who grew up in side-by-side houses and enjoyed the same hobby: making paper airplanes together. One day, however, Ben's family must move far away. Losing a friend due to a move can be very challenging, and the ordeal can sometimes feel like a great betrayal. Such is the case for Mia, whose friendship with Ben is tested severely; her feelings volley between hurt and anger, only to be soothed by dreams about meeting Ben again. One day, however, she receives a pleasant surprise in the mail: Ben has built a plane halfway and now seeks her input for completing the remaining half. She happily obliges. In this touching, sparely written story about friendship, author Helmore makes the best out of a difficult and potentially traumatic experiencea separation. While the story, enhanced by Jones' symbolic, beautifully chalky illustrations, has a bittersweet beginning, it has a positive and uplifting ending. Parents and educators will especially appreciate how the protagonists' feelings are depicted in a realistic and convincing mannerand the validation that sadness and anger are OK. The book's inspiring ending makes it a good resource for children experiencing separation issues. Mia has brown skin and black, bobbed hair, and Ben presents white; their shared neighborhood appears to be in rural North America. A beautiful and sensitive treatment of a common childhood experience. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
