Fly Away Home is a story of a homeless boy and his father who live in an airport, each day moving to a new terminal in an effort to go unnoticed. One day the boy sees a bird trapped in the airport and when the bird escapes through a door, he realizes that he also will find a way out someday. Some readers may not be able to relate to being homeless and having to live in an airport, but they can probably relate to the feeling of being trapped in a situation at some point in their lives. Since the story is told through the eyes of the boy, children can relate to his feelings and adults can relate because they were children at one time.
The idea of being trapped can be felt through both the pictures and the text. The pictures help to capture the boys’ sadness and the dull colors enhance the readers' feelings of pain and lifelessness. Both the boy and his father always wear blue, a color often associated with sadness and the pictures seem to close in around the words, drawing the eyes of the reader inward which may represent feeling trapped, as well.
According to The Horn Book, "the problem of homelessness, so distressing and so difficult to explain to children, has found moving expression in a simple, universal picture book…"[1] I agree, homelessness can be hard to explain and the feelings of those who are homeless can he hard to get across. This book helps children and adults experience the pain of the homeless through words and pictures.
[1] This quote can be found on the back of Fly Away Home.
Bunting, Eve. Fly Away Home. New York: Clarion, 1991.
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2 comments:
What I like about this story is that it complicates what few representations of homelessness we have. For example, that there's a community within the airport who support each other. I think a downside is that the book frames homelessness as personal misfortune without alluding to why people become homeless.
I agree with what you are saying. I also think though that the fact that the book doesn't talk about why people become homeless provides parents and teachers with the opportunity to discuss this with their children and students. Maybe after explaining what homelessness means and why it happens, parents and teachers can use this book to express how those who are homeless feel.
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