Dreams of Flying: An Uplifting Inspiration

 

DIAL BOOKS
FOR YOUNG READERS   2025

I expected to like this recent picture book, but waspleqasantly  surprised by how fast-paced, compelling, and inspiring it is. LET'S FLY: BARRINGTON IRVING'S RECORD-BREAKING FLIGHT AROUND THE WORLD is co-written by Barrington Irving and Chana Stiefel, with illustrations by Shamar Knight-Justice.

Their collaborative authorship provides young Barrington Irving to account for his remarkable achievements and pursuits with a distinct first person voice, but Steifel skilled experience with nonfiction picture book text allows pacing, phrasing, and layered themes to shine through. 
Barrington's account begins with a direct letter to readers, then leads them into his early years in Jamaica, his interests in cars, trucks, and the skies above. A move to Miami left him feeling like an outsider, but noticing that if coconut trees could force there way through concrete, anything is possible. He imagined and worked toward a way out through high school football. When a Black pilot, Captain Gary Robinson shopped at his family's bookstore, he asked Barrington a question that would change his  life: 

"Have you ever thought of becoming a pilot?"
The story unfolds with clarity and crisp pacing, including the ensuing sequence of taking instructions, setting seemingly impossible goals, reaching out to introduce young people to careers in airplane-connected ventures, winning world records, and developing/achieving even newer goals. 

Details within the account, as well as the vibrant, action-packed illustrations, put readers right in the seat at his side, provide a view of the skies, and reveal some squirmy concerns that balance the glamour and excitement with real challenges (dangerous weather, numbing cold temperatures, needing to use a pee bottle or simply "hold it" for hour after hour). The reality is that any records broken by him were immediately available for others to break- except one. He became the first Black man to fly around the world. No one will ever take that from him, although his "youngest" record has been broken several times by others.

He takes his opportunity to affect other young lives seriously, with a  liveliness and flair that has attracted thousands of youth to discover their own interests and inner drive. What an inspiring life, well-told.