Courage to Fly

Meg arrives in a cold Canadian city carrying the warmth of the Caribbean inside her, and Troon Harrison captures that displacement with rare tenderness. When a grounded swallow falls into Meg's care, the parallel is clear but never heavy-handed — nursing the bird back to health becomes the way Meg nurses herself back to courage. Zhong-Yang Huang's illustrations earned the Alberta Book Illustration of the Year for good reason; they carry real emotional weight. The only honest caveat is that the picture-book length leaves adult readers wishing for more room to breathe. As a classroom read-aloud on belonging and immigration, though, this is a quiet gem that earns every bit of its recognition.