Dreaming of Flight: A Novel

4.5★s

"… you wake something up in people. You remind them we can do better at getting along. You can be just a regular, real person and still be the magic somebody else needs in her life. We do it for each other all the time. It's that everyday sort of magic. We're all capable of it, I do believe, but still you don't always see people living up to that potential."

Dreaming of Flight is a novel by best-selling, award-winning American author, Catherine Ryan Hyde. Eleven-year-old Stewart Little fervently believes that the eggs he delivers to his customers must be fresh: it's his prime selling point. He's explaining this to the older woman at the last house on his round, who takes some convincing. Something about her reminds him of his grandmother. Gam died a year ago, and Stewie misses her terribly.

Marilyn (the name she's using) is taking a bit of a chance interacting with a stranger: she really needs to stay under the radar, or the police, or someone from Eastridge might track her down, take her in and demand the money back. But the boy's eggs are the best she has tasted in a long time. And what she learns about the boy (what is his name, again?) impresses her: despite having lost his parents early in life, this is a well brought up boy.

Over the next weeks, circumstances see them spending time together: Stewie acts on his concern for Marilyn's safety after a kitchen incident; Marilyn discovers the boy has a learning problem and is determined to help. But her worry about his education takes her a step too far, and reading lessons are cut short by the arrival of the police. How can an eleven-year-old boy possibly prevent an elderly thief from going to prison?

Ryan Hyde has a talent for creating multi-faceted characters whose development often turns the reader's initial, perhaps critical, opinion to something more favourable or sympathetic. Her special skill, lately, seems to be boys or young men with a strong sense of right and wrong, of duty. "Some things just won't let you not do them."

Stewie is sweet and thoughtful, but can also be quite wilful. He is extremely caring and considerate of those around him (even his Gam's hens), perhaps to his detriment: "he feels responsible for fixing everyone around him" but that also endears him to almost all who meet him, including the reader. He is resourceful and shows initiative, which allows him to achieve more than expected.

His inner monologue, his thinking, his analysis of a situation, his perspective on life, and his honesty are truly refreshing, and he takes on board and shares the good advice and wisdom he garners from his therapist and his elders. Early on, he tells Marilyn: "I have sad. But that's not the same as problems. Problems are something you have to figure out a way to solve. You can't solve sad."

She later observes: "Life is never all good or all bad. It's always a trade-off deal. It's always 'something is lost, but something else is gained'." Plenty of wise words and insightful observations are offered in this heart-warming and uplifting coming-of -age story.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.