Taking Flight
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected Apr 21, 2026
-
- $5.99
-
- Pre-Order
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
A moving and stunningly illustrated exploration of the refugee experience, through the eyes of those most impacted: children
No matter where you started,
leaving was hard—so was the journey.
And when you finally reached safety,
you were hungry, thirsty, worn-out.
Ready for rest.
Taking Flight offers an intimate look at being a refugee by following three different children. From the mountains of Tibet, the cotton fields in Syria, and a city in Ukraine, families pack their bags and say goodbye to their homes as they leave in search of safety. Although they don’t know what the future holds—maybe an extended time in a refugee camp or a long journey to a place with a new language—they hope that it will be a place they can call home.
Told in second person, directly addressing a displaced child, and with deeply evocative illustrations from Nicolò Carozzi, Taking Flight is a timely and necessary story that offers gentle reassurance and hope for readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In second-person prose and close-hatched, realistic images, Sheth and Carozzi's deeply felt tale braids together tales of three young refugees. A dark-haired child in a red scarf leaves a Tibet-like "highland home,/ where clouds dance with snowy peaks." A youth with brown hair and worn boots drifts across the ocean in a boat after leaving a landscape that hints at Syria's cotton fields. And a blonde child who "left your beloved city/ with sparkling, domed-roof churches" runs wide-eyed while fleeing a place that reads as Ukraine. Each child travels to a refugee camp and an unknown new land, then bears witness to first glimmers of connection and friendship as they meet other children and "all try to belong together." Digitally enhanced graphite illustrations crisply portray the youths' homelands and individual experiences in a title that spotlights difficult, necessary journeys and ends with images of hope. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. Ages 4–8.
