Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers

Gr 3-5–Loujain is a young girl who longs to fly, but lives in a land where it is forbidden for girls to do so. Every morning, her father helps her put wings on, but she is relegated to watching him fly while she is refused that privilege. The injustice makes Loujain angry; she longs to see a field of sunflowers her father told her about, but the only way to see it is to fly to it. Due to her avid interest in using her wings, Loujain’s parents agree to support their daughter’s dream and her father gives her step-by-step lessons. Various sizes of acrylic gouache and colored pencil illustrations, ranging from vignettes to full-page, are bright with saturated color. Flying is a metaphor used in place of driving, an offense for which the real Loujain Alhathloul was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Youngsters might have questions about the child doing something unlawful; will she be punished for flying? Will her father get in trouble for teaching her?