Paper Planes
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Mia and Ben are the very best of friends. They live side by side at the edge of a great, wide lake and together they sail, and swing, and sing. But the thing they love the most is making paper planes. They dream of one day being able to make a plane that will fly all the way across the lake, and their planes become more and more intricate...
But one day: terrible news. Ben's family are moving far, far away. How can Mia and Ben stay best friends if they are so far apart? And how will they ever realise their dream of making a plane that can fly across their lake?
Find out in this moving, lyrical story of friendship and flight.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mia and Ben, best friends who live "side by side on the edge of a great, wide lake," do just about everything together sailing, swinging, and, best of all, making paper planes. The children, large-headed and doll-like in softly brushed paintings by Jones, are shown playing joyfully in an idyllic community rich with leafy trees and rolling hills. When Ben moves "to a new home, a long way away," the friends are devastated, and Mia in particular struggles to cope ("Hot tears fell from her eyes"). Helmore modulates emotions well as the girl's loneliness turns to resentment: "Mia took the plane Ben had given her and smashed it on the ground./ She went to bed, feeling hurt and angry." A nighttime fancy in which Mia and Ben fly in each other's planes above the lake ("They swooped/ and skimmed/ and soared") and a special package lead to a satisfying resolution, proving that distance need not ruin a strong friendship. Expansive and warm with emotion, Jones's illustrations lend dreamy poignancy to Helmore's straightforward prose. A familiar childhood challenge surmounted with well-pitched emotional resonance from the creators of The Snow Lion. Ages 4 8.