The People Could Fly

The Picture Book

By: Virginia Hamilton

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Hardcover | 9 November 2004 | Edition Number 1

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This is a 32 page picture book version of the late Virginia Hamilton's title story from her award-winning collection of American Black folktales, The People Could Fly which has sold more than 330,000 copies in its various editions and has earned $449,000 in anthology permissions just since 1991. The Dillons, who illustrated the 192 page collection in black and white, have now created all new glorious illustrations in full color for every page of this picture book. A tale about slaves seeking freedom, it is considered her most haunting and moving tale and second only to her Newbery book in sales. Like many books illustrated by the Dillons (see comparative sales) this will be a stand-out gift book for all seasons, all people, and it will also be THE showcase book during Black History Month.

"THE PEOPLE COULD FLY," the title story in Virginia Hamilton's prize-winning American Black folktale collection, is a fantasy tale of the slaves who possessed the ancient magic words that enabled them to literally fly away to freedom. And it is a moving tale of those who did not have the opportunity to "fly" away, who remained slaves with only their imaginations to set them free as they told and retold this tale.

Leo and Diane Dillon have created powerful new illustrations in full color for every page of this picture book presentation of Virginia Hamilton's most beloved tale. The author's original historical note as well as her previously unpublished notes are included.

Awards for The People Could Fly collection-

A Coretta Scott King Award

A Booklist Children's Editors' Choice

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

A Horn Book Fanfare

An ALA Notable Book

An NCTE Teachers' Choice

A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year

A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Century

Industry Reviews

They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the people knew magic. And they would walk up on the air like climbin up on a gate." Hamilton's The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales (1985) won a Coretta Scott King Award, and the Dillons here reissue its heartbreaking title story with gorgeous, all-new, full-color paintings. Legend has it that some people in Africa could fly, but when they were shipped to America as slaves, they shed their black, shiny wings (reflected as feathers on the glossy black endpapers). When a mother and her baby are brutally whipped in the cotton fields, an old slave resurrects his magic and helps her and others fly away, free as birds, leaving the non-magical slaves behind to tell the tale. Like the story, the paintings are both hopeful and somber, and the slaves are as graceful and softly luminous as the slave owners are stiff, pinched, and cruel. A dreamy, powerful picture-book tribute to both Hamilton and the generations-old story. (editor's note, author's note) (Picture book. 9-12) (Kirkus Reviews)

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