34. The People Could Fly

The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton (Alfred A. Knopf) 2004

Genre

Folklore

Honors

American Library Association Notable Books for Children, 2005, winner

Review

Some Africans can fly.  When they were taken into slavery, they lost their wings, and many forgot how to fly.  When Sarah is working in the fields and the Overseer whips her crying baby.  An old slave named Toby reminds Sarah how to fly and incants the necessary magic words.  Sarah takes flight and soon many other slaves do too.  Many of the Africans cannot fly, and Toby cannot teach them, noting that they'll need to wait for their chance to run.

Opinion

The tale is about a kind of liberation, but also about captivity.  It's remarkably ambiguous (in a way that folk tales can be, but often aren't).  The nature of flight isn't expounded upon.  The flying people never light upon the ground again -- at least we aren't told that they do.  It made me think of the function of smoke and ash in the poetry of Paul Celan -- who's parents perished in the Holocaust.  Was the flying liberation in life or in death?  Hamilton writes, "Toby was there where there was no one to help her and the babe."  Does that mean that even Toby couldn't help her?  The second person to fly is a man who collapses from heat exhaustion, and when Toby flies away there is a gun ready to fire at him.  Certainly, one might feel that death was preferable to slavery.  Regardless, the tale is somber.  Even if the flying people head to freedom, the non-flying Africans must suffer through slavery until its dismantling.

Ideas

The book would be a compelling companion to lessons on slavery.  The ambiguous narration still helps reflect the common desire of a people.  The pictures are lovely and the book would be great for a story time.