Wings to Soar

When 10-year-old Viva escapes Uganda with her mother and older sister in 1972, she expects her father to join them within a few days at the Royal Air Force base resettlement camp in England.

But the base is temporary, and, as days and weeks drag on and her father doesn’t appear, the family is forced to relocate to London while they wait and wonder anxiously about what has happened to him. Viva resists her mother’s attempts to adjust to a new life in London, determined not to give up on their plans to move to Canada as a family. But the uncertainty takes its toll as she struggles with loneliness, culture shock and resentment directed at them as refugees. Bricks through the front window, angry picketers, anti-Asian headlines and racial slurs make Viva long for home, or even the relative peace and acceptance at the RAF base. She misses her friends, Maggie, a chatty English girl her own age, and Leroy, a kind, black American airman at the base who shares her Diana Ross obsession.

Viva’s mother and older sister, Anna, seem resigned to their father’s disappearance, but Viva clings to the hope that her father is still alive. Buoyed by the memories she shared with him and inspired by Diana Ross and the Supremes, Viva proves herself feisty and brave, if impulsive, in her mission to track down her beloved Daddy. When he turns up in the United States, the family is relieved, but reunification is complicated, and Viva must dig deep to find the courage to endure.

Wings to Soar by Tina Athaide is a middle-grade novel, written in verse, and the genre is well suited to a child’s point of view. Viva’s voice is compelling, and the breathlessness of the brief lines and playful use of language reflect her youth and lively character. While the novel’s perspective is distinctly personal, the historical context is smoothly woven throughout Viva’s story. With the expulsion of citizens of Indian descent from Idi Amin’s Uganda in 1972, thousands of refugees landed in Britain, feeding an already-growing anti-immigration sentiment. Viva and her family are on the receiving end of racism and angry protest, and the writing style reflects both her innocence and her fear of the ugly response to a humanitarian crisis. It generates sympathetic outrage in readers against injustice and cruelty.

Further context is provided by Viva’s friends. Maggie and Mark demonstrate that many British people showed compassion and caring, rounding out perspectives and preventing blanket judgement. Leroy, who, as a black American, has been on the receiving end of racism for much of his life and career, provides a link to urgent modern issues of refugees and racism in Britain, the United States and throughout the world. Viva, and the reader through her, must reconcile the ugliness of xenophobia with the generosity of individuals.

The infusion of music into the story provides inspiration and joy, and the irrepressible Viva brings humour, energy and delight into what could be a dark tale. She is obsessed with words (she and her father would peruse “Big Blue” – the Oxford English Dictionary – and keep a “word book”) and her observations, while not especially poetic, are articulate and precise.
The physical hardcover book, itself, is beautiful, with a striking, glittering dust cover, a pin-up poster on the reverse, and artistic end papers decorated with words and definitions. The book also includes an author’s note that provides useful background. Author Tina Athaide was born in Uganda and lived in London and Canada, and the story mirrors some of her own experience.

A sometimes-painful story anchored by a vivacious narrative voice, Wings to Soar is a historical verse novel for modern times and a triumph of hope over darkness and sorrow.