Introduction by Heavy Medal Award Committee Member Lauren Taylor
The first thing I did after finishing MID-AIR by Alicia D. Williams was to get on my library’s website and put a hold on everything in her back catalog. The prose, the plot, the rumination on what it means to change time and place. This novel in verse takes on multiple tropes and tried & true conventions in children’s fiction to create something that feels magical and new. I was surprised each time the plot shifted and the direction changed, yet I was always happy to follow along where Williams and the novel’s main character, Isaiah, led me. From the city to the South, from the death of a friend to first love. I couldn’t believe how much was packed into this novel, especially as it’s in verse with way less text than many middle grade chapter books.
“I Bet You
is how it always begins.
No matter the game or record.
One of us’ll throw out the first bet,
another’ll pick it up & double it,
Another’ll snatch it back, triple it, like – …
So on & so on
adding time to feats
we ain’t hardly gonna reach.
But it’s the talking that gets us psyched,
Got us believing in gladiator might.
And it’s the believing that counts.” (p.33)
The novel opens with best friends Darius, Drew and Isiah betting on who can do a wheelie for the longest. But instead of the whooping celebration when Darius completes his dare, it ends in tragedy. Darius is struck by a car while Isiah and Drew are distracted by a man yelling at them for being in his neighborhood. I thought this novel was going to be solely focused on Isiah dealing with the death of a friend, but it upended my expectations almost immediately. The reader learns that Isiah loves rock bands and t-shirts. He likes to wear nail polish and is worried about how he needs to be “tough” and fit in with his classmates. Drew is distant and never wants to talk about Darius leaving Isiah feeling more adrift than ever before. When he goes to pay homage to Darius at the site of his death, he is chased and attacked by the same man who Isiah holds responsible for Darius’ death. Fearing for his life, Isiah shuts down and is unwilling to talk about the event HE. IS. FINE. With summer break approaching, his parents decide to send him to stay with his Uncle Vent and Aunt Terri for the summer. The break from the everyday, the slower pace of his relatives’ small town and the new friendships of Grady and Kiana, allow Isiah to process the trauma and find people he can trust again.
I was unsurprised after finishing MID-AIR to find out that Alicia D. Williams has already netted several awards including a Newbery Honor. MID-AIR is the work of an author at the top of her craft and although I haven’t read her other works (yet), I can’t imagine that MID-AIR won’t do well this award season. This book is excellent and I can’t imagine the Newbery Committee finding it anything short of excellence. If an author can use words so skillfully to describe one of the more gross things our bodies can do like this: “my head faces the ground introducing the earth to the contents of my stomach,” (p. 123) I think she deserves an award. Plus, Williams tackles a full range of subjects from race to grief to gender roles all while keeping the book relatable and readable. I know this introduction post is getting long, so I’ll wrap it up with a question and a poem. What did you think of MID AIR?
“Girls
can use power tools,
wear blue, play football and hockey,
box, wrestle, drive race cars too. Girls can
be firefighters, construction workers, police, and
security guards. Girls can pretend, dress up, play with
dolls, without ever being too old. They can be brave
or scared, cry without being told to stop. They can
even do karate! Girls can feel or not.
They can not wear polish, dresses,
or heels, and still be
girls.
But…
it’s a big deal if boys wear polish.” (p. 108)
Heavy Medal Award Committee members and others are now invited to discuss this book further in the Comments section below. Let the Mock Newbery discussion begin!