The Year I Flew Away

Ten-year-old Gabrielle Marie Jean lives in a small Haitian village, where she wins mango-eating contests, plays in the rain with her best friend Stephanie, and sneaks out at night to hear ghost stories. Life is difficult: Electricity is scarce, food is expensive, and families sometimes split apart when they cannot feed all their children. The greatest threat comes from the Macoute, soldiers with unchecked power who beat Stephanie's brother Jean-Paul to death. Gabrielle possesses an unusual gift: She can see things others cannot, including a "Night River" of tears threatening to carry Jean-Paul's grieving mother away.

When her parents announce they are moving to America, joy turns to anxiety. They cannot obtain the necessary papers, so Gabrielle must travel alone and live with Uncle John and his family in Brooklyn. She promises to behave, since returned children are labeled timoun pa bon ("no-good kid") and face village scorn.

Gabrielle arrives in February, stunned by the cold. Uncle John's wife, Aunt Carole, states one rule: Don't get into trouble. Their teenage daughter, Kayla, is dismissive. That night, Gabrielle discovers a mysterious red door in the building's lobby. Behind it she meets Lady Lydia, a needle-thin witch with fog-colored skin and a cloak of living crows. Speaking perfect Haitian Creole, Lady Lydia claims she helps immigrant children and predicts Gabrielle will beg for an elixir to make people accept her. Gabrielle refuses and escapes, but the witch promises she will return.

School is a disaster. Gabrielle mangles a simple English greeting, and the kids laugh. Students pass a note bearing her name and a picture of a monkey. Mrs. Bartell, the school librarian who is also Haitian, encourages her, but Gabrielle's thick accent remains a barrier despite English as a Second Language classes. When the school calls about her running out of class, Uncle John insists she is in America for an education, not a social life.

Lady Lydia appears again, and this time Gabrielle does not send her away. On her way to a midnight meeting in Prospect Park, Gabrielle meets Rocky, a talking rat who dreams of becoming a rabbit. Rocky warns her not to trust the witch, but Gabrielle is determined. Lady Lydia presents a Carabao mango, the sweetest variety in the world, sliced into three pieces, each granting one wish. The cost, she claims, is something small. If Gabrielle eats all three slices, however, Lady Lydia will claim her "essence." Gabrielle plans to eat only one slice and takes the box home.

She eats the first slice and wishes to speak perfect English. The wish works instantly. She befriends Carmen Hernández, a girl from Mexico, and Mrs. Bartell invites her to present about Haiti for Culture Day, but Gabrielle refuses, not wanting anyone to know she is an immigrant. That evening she discovers the true cost: She can no longer speak or understand Haitian Creole. When she confronts Lady Lydia, the witch reveals that once a wish is made on a subject, no future wish can undo it. Gabrielle's Creole is gone permanently.

Lady Lydia hints that English alone will not help Gabrielle fit in. When Tianna Thompson, Gabrielle's main bully, convinces a classmate to exclude Gabrielle from a birthday party and mocks her Haitian lunch in the cafeteria, Gabrielle punches Tianna and is suspended. Her uncle warns that more trouble means being sent back. That night, Kayla confesses she endured the same slurs when she arrived from Haiti at age seven. During the suspension, Gabrielle accompanies her uncle and aunt to their jobs, witnessing immigrant adults face the same prejudice and realizing bullying does not end in adulthood.

Desperate, Gabrielle eats the second slice and wishes to be "one hundred percent pure American." She wakes with straight hair and brand-name clothes, but her family has vanished. The wish erases her Haitian family from her American life. At the stream in Prospect Park, children once laughing in Lady Lydia's vision are now ghostly figures screaming for help. A deaf boy signs a warning to Rocky, who interprets the message: "You are the last one." Lady Lydia urges Gabrielle to eat the third slice, but Gabrielle senses a trap and escapes.

Gabrielle confides in Carmen, and they seek help from Mrs. Bartell, who reveals Lady Lydia's true plan: to collect the essence of one child from every country, stripping Brooklyn of cultural diversity. Haiti is the last on her list. A good witch named Madam Monday once trapped Lady Lydia but has since disappeared. With help from Getz, a resourceful classmate, they trace Madam Monday to the candy lady near school. Madam Monday explains that witch law forbids her from directly breaking a fairly made deal, but a rare candy cane snail native to Haiti can dissolve the protective coating on the stream, freeing the trapped essences. The snail is in a magical forest that only one person can enter at a time, and only the deal-maker can touch it safely, so Gabrielle must go alone.

Inside the forest, Gabrielle faces three trials within ten minutes. Illusions of her Haitian friends become serpents, a bee steals her voice, and jaguars chase her to a cliff where a bridge appears only when she speaks difficult truths. She finds the snail on her shoulder with seconds to spare. Rocky then snatches the vial and flees, revealing his own deal with Lady Lydia: deliver the snail in exchange for becoming a rabbit. He soon returns, remorseful, and they forgive him.

Madam Monday arms them with a magical slumber song and emphasizes two clues: No one "on earth" can stop the witch from collecting what is owed, and words can be "uplifting." At midnight, Carmen plays the song, putting Lady Lydia to sleep. Rocky grabs the snail vial from the witch's neck, but it rolls away. Lady Lydia wakes and attacks. With help from Egg, a pit bull playing fetch nearby who had grabbed the rolling vial, Rocky retrieves it, and Gabrielle drops the snail into the stream, freeing the essences and draining Lady Lydia's power. But Gabrielle's family does not appear. The deal still holds: Only a third wish can bring them back, trapping Gabrielle in the stream forever. She accepts the sacrifice, eats the final slice, and wishes her family home. They appear through a portal, but Lady Lydia warns she will collect Gabrielle's essence at noon.

The next morning is Culture Day. As noon approaches, the Flying Evil Army of Rage (FEAR), Lady Lydia's invisible army, emerges from the auditorium walls, visible at first only to Gabrielle, Carmen, and Rocky. Gabrielle takes the stage and confesses she is from Haiti, describing her people's strength and declaring herself both a proud Haitian and a proud American. When her teacher Ms. King calls the words "uplifting," Carmen and Gabrielle realize the key to Madam Monday's clues: If Gabrielle is lifted off the earth, the witch cannot claim her. Gabrielle urges every student to speak about their origins, and each declaration transforms into a feather on her back. Tianna delivers the decisive speech, revealing she is from Jamaica and producing feathers twice the size of the others. The feathers form wings, and Gabrielle lifts off the ground, voiding the witch's claim. She creates a tornado that sweeps Lady Lydia and FEAR away.

In the epilogue, Gabrielle lands three months later just as her parents arrive in America with their papers approved. Her Haitian Creole has returned, her natural hair has grown back, and she embraces her identity. At the airport, her father admits he is nervous about learning English. Gabrielle offers one rule: If you want a mango, buy one at the store, because getting one from a witch costs far more than you expect.