NIGHT FLYING

A girl takes nighttime dream flights over the landscape below in this picture book for children.

Growing up in Wisconsin, an almost-7-year-old girl named Jamie-Lee Agnes Nelson likes playing outdoors or dressing up like a princess. Jamie-Lee, known as Jamie, also likes her privacy—for reading, daydreaming, or enjoying nature—and even dares to enter the backyard of her strange neighbor, Mr. Harry (nicknamed “Scary Harry”), to sit in his swing and watch the sun rise. Trying to fall asleep one night, she imagines she’s floating upward into the sky, able to see everything down below. Though clumsy on the ground, in the air Jamie feels masterful. It’s so satisfying that she goes on these dreamy journeys every night, exploring everything from her grandparents’ farm to the aurora borealis. Years later, having almost forgotten her flying, she recalls it with affection—and even makes friends with Mr. Harry. Jamie’s character shows a healthy balance between dreamy imaginativeness and earthy, regular-girl energy; she hopes to be a fancy princess, but she wears her hair in braids to avoid combing it. The girl’s flying becomes more convincing thanks to well-chosen sensory details, such as “the hushed soughing of the sturdy, twisting oaks in the breezes.” Similarly, while the book is nostalgic for a time when kids wandered around outside all day by themselves, its young heroine takes the view—perhaps more freely expressed today than in the past—that some grown-ups can be off-putting. The rapprochement between Jamie and Mr. Harry could be more solidly accounted for; though it seems to have something to do with remembering her flights, the link is tenuous. The quirky, soft pastel pencil illustrations capture the story’s wonder, adding charming details like a bird painting that comes to life when Jamie flies.

A Midwestern child’s flights of fancy that are nicely grounded in childhood reality.