Jim Helmore and Richard Jones’s Paper Planes beautifully captures the intensity of those all-consuming childhood friendships, and the feelings that arise when you don’t get a say in the big things that happen in your life. Like your best friend Ben moving far, far away.
Interestingly, this story follows Mia, the child who is left behind.
Ben and Mia had grand plans to build a paper plane that could fly all the way across the lake and Mia is left wondering how their friendship and their grand design will survive now that they live so far away from each other.
Luckily, the very creativity that cemented their friendship helps Mia and Ben find a way to stay in touch and find a solution for their dream plane, together.
The muted colours of Richard Jones’s illustrations are the perfect foil for Mia’s unfolding feelings, and the gentle, touching tone of the story. The artwork also includes two dogs that cleverly mirror the children’s feelings and relationships.
Paper Planes is a great book for any child having to move away from friends or, like Mia in the story, a child dealing with the loneliness of being left behind.
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