Wings

Are you brave enough to be your true self? Ikarus Jackson is, but it isn't always easy. The people in his neigborhood point at his wings. The kids at school laugh. The teachers call him a distraction.One girl identifies with Ikarus, but she is too shy to speak up for herself, let alone for him. Maybe I should have said something to those mean kids, she thinks, when their taunts send him drifting into the sky. Inspired by Ikarus's own courage, she sets out in search of him and so begins her own journey of self discovery -- leaving both of them transformed.I wanted to create a book that tells kids never to abandon the things that make them different, to be proud of what makes them unique. Every child has his own beauty, her own talents. Ikarus Jackson can fly through the air; I want kids to find their own set of wings and soar with him. -- Christopher Myers

Author: Christopher Myers
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Published: 10/01/2000
Pages: 40
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.93lbs
Size: 11.34h x 7.97w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9780590033770
Audience: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 3.4
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 43566 / Wings


Award: North Carolina Children's Book Award - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 05/15/2000 pg. 1754
Publishers Weekly 09/11/2000 pg. 90
Black Issues Book Review 09/01/2000 pg. 80
Kirkus Review - Children 09/15/2000 pg. 1360
School Library Journal 10/01/2000 pg. 130
People Weekly 10/30/2000 pg. 50
New York Times 11/19/2000 pg. 26
Newsweek 12/11/2000 pg. 72
New York Times 12/03/2000 pg. 87
Booklist Ed Choice Adu Bk YA's 01/01/2001 pg. 864
Booklist 02/15/2001 pg. 1152
ALA Notable Children's Books 01/01/2001 pg. 1378
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2000 pg. 65 - Below Average, With Minor Flaw
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2001 pg. 65 - Below Average, With Minor Flaw
Publishers Weekly 09/08/2000

About the Author

The son of acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers, award-winning illustrator Christopher Myers credits his appreciation of the importance of images to observing the objects and photographs his parents would bring home from auctions and flea markets: "little histories;" "other people's memories that get left behind." His own family images have had quite an impact, as well - as in a black-and-white photograph of his grandfather with a telling smile on his face. "He was a storyteller. His thick, dark, calloused hands told stories. My father tells stories. I tell stories. I'm fascinated with work, what work is, who does work, how much our identities are wrapped up in what we do with our hands. Shoeshine boy, ditchdigger, painter. My grandfather laughed at my father's hands because they were too soft. Still I think he was proud of the fact that my father didn't have to work with his back. This is progress."

Myers has made his career working with his hands in yet another way, creating his own images in collage, photos, woodcuts, and other artistic media. A graduate of Brown University, he has participated in the exclusive Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Studio Program. Myers began his children's book career doing research to help his father, and went on to illustrate the elder Myers' Shadow of the Red Moon. In 1998, the two collaborated on Harlem, which was named a Caldecott Honor Book as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Myers' solo effort, Black Cat, was also a Coretta Scott King Honor Book.

In addition to his fine art and illustrative work, Christopher Myers is a clothing designer. He makes his home in Brooklyn, New York.

The son of acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers, award-winning illustrator Christopher Myers credits his appreciation of the importance of images to observing the objects and photographs his parents would bring home from auctions and flea markets: "little histories;" "other people's memories that get left behind." His own family images have had quite an impact, as well - as in a black-and-white photograph of his grandfather with a telling smile on his face. "He was a storyteller. His thick, dark, calloused hands told stories. My father tells stories. I tell stories. I'm fascinated with work, what work is, who does work, how much our identities are wrapped up in what we do with our hands. Shoeshine boy, ditchdigger, painter. My grandfather laughed at my father's hands because they were too soft. Still I think he was proud of the fact that my father didn't have to work with his back. This is progress."

Myers has made his career working with his hands in yet another way, creating his own images in collage, photos, woodcuts, and other artistic media. A graduate of Brown University, he has participated in the exclusive Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Studio Program. Myers began his children's book career doing research to help his father, and went on to illustrate the elder Myers' Shadow of the Red Moon. In 1998, the two collaborated on Harlem, which was named a Caldecott Honor Book as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Myers' solo effort, Black Cat, was also a Coretta Scott King Honor Book.

In addition to his fine art and illustrative work, Christopher Myers is a clothing designer. He makes his home in Brooklyn, New York.