Wings to Soar

Description

A historically relevant middle-grade novel-in-verse about a girl’s resiliency when faced with hatred towards refugees. Readers of The Night Diary and Inside Out and Back Again shouldn’t miss out.

It’s 1972 and Viva’s Indian family has been expelled from Uganda and sent to a resettlement camp in England, but not all of them made the trip. Her father is supposed to meet them in London, but he never shows up. As they wait for him, Viva, her mother, and her sister get settled in camp and try to make the best of their life there.

Just when she is beginning to feel at home with new friends, Viva and her family move out of the camp and to a part of London where they are not welcome. While grappling with the hate for brown-skinned people in their new community, Viva is determined to find her missing father so they can finish their move to Canada. When it turns out he has been sponsored to move to the United States, they have to save enough money to join him.

Told in verse, Wings to Soar follows a resilient girl and the friendships she forges during a turbulent time.

“These rich, vivacious lines combine an insistence on self with undaunted hope. A supreme heart-changer.”
—Rita Williams-Garcia, Newbery Honor, National Book Award, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, and Coretta Scott King Award WinnerTina Athaide is an educator and children’s book author who writes stories to capture the texture and richness of a wide scope of cultural experiences, recent or distant, with the hope to open readers’ hearts. Her debut middle grade novel, Orange For The Sunsets was awarded the Geoffrey Bilson Award by the Canadian Children’s Book Council, and her picture book, Meena’s Mindful Moment, is a nominee in the Forest of Reading. Tina was born in Uganda and emigrated to London and then Canada. Nowadays, you can find Tina in Southern California where she lives with her family.CN

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