Jawanza is not allowed to leave his apartment building and play on the busy street. He spends a lot of time at the window, watching the people below and the pigeons that flock around his building. That’s how he meets Roderick Jackson Montgomery the Three. The older man raises pigeons on the roof of Jawanza’s building. Soon Jawanza is on the rooftop, too, trying to decipher the language of the birds and the ways of Roderick Jackson Montgomery the Three, who is gruff and friendly, mysterious and forthright, touched and wholly sane all at once. “Boy, if you don’t listen you won’t learn nothing. God gave you two ears and only one mouth, because he wants you to listen more than you talk!” In this soaring, poetic story, Christopher Myers has written about a lonely African American boy who finds friendship — and freedom — on the unlikely confines of an urban rooftop. Myers’s exquisite artwork is full of color and motion in this beautifully designed volume. (Ages 8–11)

Jawanza watches everything from his window. He watches the children running and playing below, but most of all he watches the birds write all over the sky scribbling their crazy bird clouds. When he steps outside and meets Roderick the Three and his ensemble of feathered friends, he discovers a unique and unexpected friendship. Award-winning author/illustrator Christopher Myers brings us a thoughtful look at the beauty of friendship with Fly.