Fly Away
by Patricia MacLachlan (Author)
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Kirkus
A story that never cloys, succeeding on all levels. (Fiction. 6-10)
Publishers Weekly
As she did in recent younger middle-grade titles including The Truth of Me and Kindred Souls, MacLachlan again demonstrates a gift for combining an economy of prose with a bounty of emotion. Lucy's family is traveling by VW bus to visit her eccentric Aunt Frankie in North Dakota. An aspiring poet, Lucy insists that she can't sing, an anomaly in her musical family. Her farmer father loves opera as much as he loves cows; her mother is devoted to musician Langhorne Slim; younger sister Gracie sings in a clear, high voice; and baby Teddy can't yet talk, but substitutes "la la la" for lyrics of songs he sings to Lucy each night. "Teddy has music but no words," says Lucy. "I have words but no music. We are a strange pair." Though the family's strong bonds are the heart of this novel, MacLachlan includes some nerve-wracking drama, too: a river overflows, threatening to flood Aunt Frankie's house, and Teddy disappears in the deluge. As befits a story in which words and music play such a central role, MacLachlan's writing is melodic, poetic, and enchanting. Ages 7-up. (Apr.)
Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
Patricia MacLachlan (1938-2022) was the award-winning author of many novels for children, including the Newbery Medal and Scott O'Dell Award-winning Sarah, Plain and Tall, which was adapted into a Hallmark television movie starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. She co-wrote the teleplay for the film as well as for two sequels, Skylark and Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End, based on her novels.
Honored with a Christopher Award and a National Humanities Medal among many others, MacLachlan was also the author of Baby, Waiting for the Magic, The Truth of Me, and the picture books Someone Like Me (illustrated by Chris Sheban), and The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse (illustrated by Hadley Hooper). Chris Sheban has been awarded three gold and three silver medals from the Society of Illustrators. Some of the books he has illustrated are I Met a Dinosaur by Jan Wahl, Catching the Moon by Myla Goldberg, and What To Do With a Box by Jane Yolen. Someone Like Me is his first book with Roaring Brook Press.JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
JUV002310 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Cows
Brothers and sisters
Families
Family life
Poets
Floods
