(  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

The Year I Flew Away  by Marie Arnold

Versify, 2021

ISBN-13 : 978-0358272755

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

Ten-year-old Gabrielle has left her home, family, and friends in Haiti to live in America with family she barely knows. Arriving in New York City in the winter, she is being bullied, having a hard time learning and understanding English and fitting in. She knows better than to trust a witch, but determined to be accepted, she accepts three slices of mango from the witch Lady Lydia. Each piece Gabrielle eats will grant a wish, but take something else away.

Gabrielle is a character who squeezes everything she can out of life. At the beginning of the book, she is mischievous and playful, active, curious, imaginative, loving, strong-minded, and brave. Marie Arnold sets her story to be descriptive of all the senses: flavors, textures, colors, and smells.  As much as Gabrielle loves her home, there is still poverty, hunger, and violence, and her parents, unable to get papers for themselves, decide to send her to America on her own, to stay with her uncle’s family. The qualities that serve Gabrielle well in Haiti, though, aren’t appreciated or apparent in New York City.

When she meets the witch, Lady Lydia, Gabrielle is wary, but after turning Lady Lydia away several times, Gabrielle finally decides she wants to belong enough to accept the consequences. Lady Lydia warns Gabrielle that if she eats all three pieces of the mango, she will have to give her essence to Lady Lydia. Gabrielle wishes for perfect English, and gains friends (Carmen and a talking rat named Rocky) but she also loses understanding of her home language, Haitian Creole, meaning she can no longer speak to or understand her family. What will the next wish take away? Gabrielle, along with help from her friends, must save herself and her family from Lady Lydia and figure out how to balance fitting in as an American with pride in her Haitian identity.

Arnold does a really wonderful job depicting the varying characters in the book, and addresses skillfully tough issues like racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. She presents a rounded picture of Gabrielle’s aunt and uncle, Carmen’s large family, and even the girl who bullies her. The tricky Lady Lydia is dramatically and vividly depicted, as is her nearly completed and disturbing spell. This is an entertaining, thoughtful, witchy, #OwnVoices book for middle grade students, and although the protagonist is a little young, could also be enjoyed by middle schoolers. Highly recommended for ages 8–12.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski