Wings, Christopher Myers

Set in an amorphous, anonymous city, Wings is the story of Ikarus Jackson, a new boy in the neighborhood. At a school where the narrator is ostracized for her shyness, Ikarus is singled out by his large white wings. Rejected by both teachers and fellow students at school for disrupting class, showing off, and being different, he has a difficult time finding acceptance for his differences. It's not until the unnamed narrator finds her voice and intervenes that Ikarus, and the bullies who torment him, find beauty in his wings. The collage illustrations are not particularly impressive--at times, the magazine pages are distracting, and they lack detail and definition--but do communicate well next to the simple text. The words are minimal, as is the storyline, but the text is expressive and there's a lot to talk about within the book.

I have mixed feelings about the ideology of Wings. The basic message, that differences can be good and that it's important to stand up for others who are experiencing bullying, is thought-provoking and useful for students, and this would be a good book to use in an anti-bullying curriculum. Racially, however, I think some aspects of the book are problematic. The human figures in the illustrations are multihued, clearly intended to code for a diverse group without indicating specific races (a playground scene, for example, has green, yellow, and blue characters). Ikarus is clearly coded as African American, however; his skin is black, while his wings are a pure white. While his racial coding doesn't detract from the message of the book, I wonder why it's necessary to show Ikarus's race when the other children are so ambiguous. More problematic are the two authority figures who harass Ikarus, a teacher and a policeman, both of whom are coded as white and male. While I can understand the reasoning behind this, it sets up a false binary and fails to encourage white allies.

I'm planning to use Wings as a follow-up to my compare/contrast lesson on flight in picture books. After discussing and writing about Abuela and Tar Beach, students should be able to discuss differences in setting, characters, and especially theme between those two books and Wings. There's a lot more that could be done with this book, though. The storyline could provoke good discussions about bullying and the importance of bystanders, which could extend into anti-bullying curriculum through classroom dialog, role playing, writing assignments, or social contracts. The illustrations could also be used to inspire art projects; students are certainly capable of making their own collages to illustrate written pieces as an alternative to the usual marker drawings. Despite the simple plot and text, there are many options for teaching with Wings.