Paper Planes

December 23, 2019
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.