Willa and Wade and the Way-Up-There

The distance Willa and Wade are pondering is that between the ground where they are and the sky where a bird flies above them. Willa and Wade are also birds, but they are flightless ones with Willa being an ostrich and Wade a penguin. Both, however, want to fly, especially because they are birds and, well, birds fly. Being “thorough thinkers”, the best friends approach the challenge thoughtfully and initially assess the problem as their needing more speed to achieve lift off and that a running start is what is required of them. However, when that approach fails to lift them into the air, they conclude they need to be lighter on their feet and turn to ballet. Though they have moments of “ever-so-something light and airy”, flight is not achieved. Feeling they may need more spring in their step, they try pogo sticks, and, while their time in the air is better than that achieved via ballet, it still does not equate with flying. Sliding on the their bellies down a hill and floating in a pool does replicate some aspects of what it might feel like to be soaring through the air, but they recognize “we still didn’t really fly.” Willa’s idea that, in order to fly, they should launch themselves from a high point leads to their jumping off a cliff and to Wade’s statement “... we flew”, a conclusion that he then modifies by adding, “For a moment”, words echoed by Willa’s “Yes, for a moment.” The next day, the pair, having “had a thought”, put into effect “Operation Way-Up-There” by constructing a catapult and finally achieving liftoff. The last illustration, a two-page spread, sees Willa and Wade, sporting World War I pilots’ helmets and goggles, “flying”, and “it felt magnificent.” Happily, Henderson and Sarhangpour end Willa and Wade and the Way-Up-There before the reality of gravity can come into play.

Henderson’s text takes two forms with the majority of it being contained in the birds’ speech bubbles with the small remainder being used to provide context for what the birds were doing. As Willa and Wade and the Way-Up-There is a graphic “novel”, Sarhangpour’s delightful cartoon-like illustrations visually “tell” a lot of the story.

Willa and Wade and the Way-Up-There, a fun read featuring friendship and creative problem-solving, is the first book in the “Willa and Wade” series.