Wingwalker - Hardcover

Brian Selznick is the remarkable illustrator of many books for children, including The Doll People, a 2000 Notable Children’s Book; Barnyard Prayers by Laura Godwin; Riding Freedom by Pam Muñoz Ryan; and The Houdini Box, winner of the 1991 Texas Bluebonnet Award, which he also wrote.

*Starred Review* Gr. 3-5. Wells shows she can paint as well with words as she can with color in this evocative story set during the Depression. Unlike his father, a dance instructor whose head is in the clouds, Reuben, almost eight, doesn't like the idea of flying, A winning ticket at the 1933 Oklahoma Air Races entitles him to a ride in the sky with a stunt flyer, and Reuben hates every minute. When the dust starts swirling through Oklahoma, and jobs, such as dance instructor, blow into the wind, Reuben and his family wait and worry--until Father sees an ad for a carnival wing walker. The family moves to Minnesota, where dusty fields are replaced by a thousand lakes, and the homogeneous population of Ambler, Oklahoma, a community with a tattooed lady, a fire eater, and a father who dances the Tango on the wings of an airplane. And one day, to his amazement, so does Reuben. This is a beautifully crafted book. Wells has chosen her words with precision ("I would forever cut a little diamond of disappointment in my father's heart"), and great care has been taken with the book design: the pages are thick, cream-colored paper, and the type is elegant yet readable. As fine as the text are Selznick's insightful Norman Rockwell-like pictures, brushed with Oklahoma dust. The rectangular pictures, placed against bare, buff-colored backgrounds, seem like windows that look backward to a time when life was different but hearts were the same. Ilene Cooper
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