The Year We Learned to Fly

By Emanuel Berger | May 13 2022 | BlogChildren's

Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López’s highly anticipated companion to their #1 New York Times bestseller The Day You Begin illuminates the power in each of us to face challenges with confidence.

On a dreary, stuck-inside kind of day, a brother and sister heed their grandmother’s advice: “Use those beautiful and brilliant minds of yours. Lift your arms, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and believe in a thing. Somebody somewhere at some point was just as bored you are now.” And before they know it, their imaginations lift them up and out of their boredom. Then, on a day full of quarrels, it’s time for a trip outside their minds again, and they are able to leave their anger behind. This precious skill, their grandmother tells them, harkens back to the days long before they were born, when their ancestors showed the world the strength and resilience of their beautiful and brilliant minds. Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical text and Rafael Lopez’s dazzling art celebrate the extraordinary ability to lift ourselves up and imagine a better world.

Enjoy this Jacqueline Woodson Activity Sheet

Jacqueline Woodson (jacquelinewoodson.com) received a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and was the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and the NAACP Image Award. Her books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever AfterNew York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners FeathersShow Way, and After Tupac and D Foster, and Each Kindness, which won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award.

9780399545535
Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López's highly anticipated companion to their #1 New York Times bestseller The Day You Begin illuminates the power in each of us to face challenges with confidence.
$18.99 US
Jan 04, 2022
9 x 10-1/2
Hardcover
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9780593407608
Los creadores del best seller número 1 del New York Times The Day You Begin se unen de nuevo para deslumbrar a los lectores con una historia que rinde homenaje al poder que hay en cada uno de nosotros para soñar algo y hacerlo realidad. 
$18.99 US
Feb 01, 2022
9 x 10-1/2
Hardcover
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9780399246531
Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's LiteratureA #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpré Illustrator Award winner Rafael López have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone.
$18.99 US
Aug 28, 2018
9 x 10-1/2
Hardcover
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9781984812070
A veces, cuando por fin damos el paso, suceden cosas increíbles.
$18.99 US
Aug 28, 2018
9 x 10-1/2
Hardcover
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9780399545498
Two children’s book superstars—#1 New York Times bestseller Jacqueline Woodson, the author of The Day You Begin, and Leo Espinosa, the illustrator of Islandborn­—join forces to celebrate the joy and freedom of summer in the city, which is gloriously captured in their rhythmic text and lively art.
$18.99 US
May 10, 2022
8-1/2 x 10-1/2
Hardcover
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9780593530191
Two children’s book superstars join forces to celebrate the joy and freedom of summer in the city, which is gloriously captured in Jacqueline Woodson’s rhythmic text and Leo Espinosa’s lively art.
$18.99 US
Jun 28, 2022
8-1/2 x 10-1/2
Hardcover
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9780399545436
WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARDWINNER OF THE CORETTA SCOTT KING AUTHOR AWARDNational Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel-in-verse explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed and the cost of professional sports on Black bodies.
$17.99 US
Sep 01, 2020
5-1/2 x 8-1/4
Hardcover
176 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 10 and up

A Story from the Great Migration
9780425288948
A simple rope binds generations together in New York Times bestselling and National Book Award winning author Jacqueline Woodson's narrative. While award-winning illustrator, James Ransome beautifully portrays the family's experience of the Great Migration.
$8.99 US
Aug 01, 2017
9 x 11
Paperback
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9780147515827
Jacqueline Woodson's multi-award winning memoir in verse--winner of the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and a Newbery Honor--now available in paperback with new material included!
$10.99 US
Oct 11, 2016
5-1/2 x 8-1/4
Paperback
368 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 10 and up

9780147516084
In this moving picture book from multi-award winning author Jacqueline Woodson, a young girl and her grandmother prepare for a very special day--the one day a month they get to visit the girl's father in prison. "Only on visiting day is there chicken frying in the kitchen at 6 a.m, and Grandma in her Sunday dress, humming soft and low." As the little girl and her grandmother get ready, her father, who adores her, is getting ready, too, and readers get to join the community of families who make the trip together, as well as the triumphant reunion between father and child, all told in Woodson's trademark lyrical style, and beautifully illusrtrated by James Ransome.
$8.99 US
Aug 11, 2015
9 x 11
Paperback
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-7 years

9780147511287
A sweet addition to the family is coming! Written by National Book Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson. Illustrated by Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Sophie Blackall. All anyone wants to talk about with Mama is the new “ding-dang baby” that’s on the way, and Gia is getting sick of it! If her new sibling is already such a big deal, what’s going to happen to Gia’s nice, cozy life with Mama once the baby is born?   “[An] honest story about jealousy, anger, displacement, and love [that] will touch kids dealing with sibling rivalry and spark their talk about change.”—Booklist   “Fresh and wise.”—Kirkus Reviews
$8.99 US
Oct 17, 2013
9 x 9
Paperback
32 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 5-8 years

9780142415528
Finalist for the National Book AwardWhen Lonnie was seven years old, his parents died in a fire. Now he's eleven, and he still misses them terribly. And he misses his little sister, Lili, who was put into a different foster home because "not a lot of people want boys-not foster boys that ain't babies." But Lonnie hasn't given up. His foster mother, Miss Edna, is growing on him. She's already raised two sons and she seems to know what makes them tick. And his teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper.Told entirely through Lonnie's poetry, we see his heartbreak over his lost family, his thoughtful perspective on the world around him, and most of all his love for Lili and his determination to one day put at least half of their family back together. Jacqueline Woodson's poignant story of love, loss, and hope is lyrically written and enormously accessible.
$8.99 US
Jan 07, 2010
5-1/2 x 8-1/4
Paperback
144 Pages
Nancy Paulsen Books
Age 10 and up