The Year We Learned To Fly, wrritten by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Rafael Lopez. Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House,. 2022. $24.99 7 and up

"That was the autumn our rooms felt too big and lonely
with only us in them and the darkness coming on so
fast.  
But while we hugged ourselves against the too-quiet 
of it all, we remembered that we didn't have to be stuck
anywhere anymore." 

Being inside has no appeal on stormy August afternoon for the two children whose story is told here. Luckily, they have a grandmother who encourages them to close their eyes, use their imaginations, and take themselves to a better place. It works! They fly over a city suddenly changed. It is a special summer for them - a time when they learned to fly. 

If they are arguing about turns, or fighting about other unimportant things that make them mad, their grandmother reminds them:

"Lift your arms, 
close your eyes,
take a deep breath, 
and stop being mean about everything. 
Somebody somewhere at some point
was just as mad as you are now."

So they fly again, and lose all the anger they are feeling. The summer passes with thoughts of taking themselves away in times of trouble. The seasons pass. They no longer need their grandmother to remind them they have freedom to think, to dream, to imagine. They teach new friends to do what they do. 

Mixed-media artwork explodes with color and add real connection to the wise and eloquent text. The scenes are filled with energy and wonder through the seasons as the children face difficulties, and overcome them. 

An author's note relates the ways enslaved people used stories of freedom to lift out of the despair of bad times. Ms. Woodson also reveals that reading Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly helped her understand that she was flying through the words she wrote.  

A companion book to The Day You Begin (2018), it is equally reassuring.