THE TOY PLANE

A boy grieving his recently deceased grandmother, who was once a pilot, takes to the skies to keep her memory alive.

Following a memorial service for his grandmother, a Black child named Leonard sits outside on a swing, clutching a sepia-toned photo depicting his grandmother in pilot attire, standing before a single-engine airplane. The boy’s father hands him a red toy plane—“Leonard wanted to be a pilot like his granny,” explains an omniscient narrator—and he whooshes it around. After the plane gets stuck in a tree, the story veers into fantasy: A bird makes off with the toy, and Leonard stumbles trying to reclaim it, landing on the back of a giant white bird. As they fly after the stolen plane, Leonard’s grandmother, who has taken the form of sa phoenixlike creature, comes to his aid before flying away. Harris’ effort to offer solace to grieving young readers tends toward metaphor (“Sometimes a memory is an adventure… / lifting you high above the clouds”) and affirmation (Leonard recalls his grandmother’s admonishment “Remember, you are brave”). Getting the message across less abstractly, and perhaps more effectively, are Harris’ digitally tweaked mixed-media illustrations, which are sure-handed, sensitive, and inviting.

A winningly tenderhearted fantasy about navigating grief.