by Jef Aerts
“Always, hey, little guy? Always!” Jadran answered, way too loud.
He bent his arm, pushed his head into the blue feathers, and whistled on his elbow like no one else could.
THE BLUE ANGEL
The Blue Angel is a movie by Josef von Sternberg from 1930, in which Marlene Dietrich played the starring role. The song that Jadran sings, “Falling in Love Again,” is based on the most famous song in the movie (in German, “Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt”). There are no blue wings in the movie itself, but there are blue wings in the musical adaptation by Josh and Jadran’s mom and dad.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I was small, Karel, the boy who lived next door, made quite an impression on me. He was very different from Jadran and this is definitely not his story, but my memory of him really helped me when I was writing The Blue Wings. Even when he was no longer living at home, Karel often used to come visit. Sometimes he slipped away from the care center and walked all the way home. One day I drove him back there myself. I’d only just gotten my driver’s license and I wasn’t sure of the route. But there was no way we could get lost, because Karel knew every house and every hedge.
When I was writing this book, I appreciated the support of a lot of people. My children and my wife were kind enough to go crane-watching with me for hours on end—and at an ungodly time in the morning too. We saw them on vacation in Sweden, and in the winter we went on a crane expedition to Lac du Der in France. They made the biggest impression on me when they flew, blaring away, over our own little farm in the springtime. The International Crane Foundation and the Great Crane Project gave me advice about how exactly young cranes grow up and what kind of sounds they make.
I got very valuable feedback from my sister Tine, who works as a pedagogical professional with young people who need extra care. On a daily basis, she visits schools and families and gives support to children in their unique development. Other people helped me with smaller things, like Pierre, who taught me how to fold up his wheelchair, and Valère, who let me sit at the steering wheel of his old Fiat 450.
I’m very grateful to the fantastic team from Querido NL and particularly my editor, Belle, for her keen insight and her endless faith in me. It was wonderful to be able to work with Martijn for the interior drawings of the cranes. I’d also like to thank everyone who listened to my early ideas or who was willing to read the manuscript. Special thanks to Laura for her beautiful English translation, and to the whole team at Levine Querido for sharing my story with a new audience in the best possible way.
The Blue Wings is a book about family, friendship, and the longing for a warm home or nest. Thanks to my family, past and present, for teaching me how incredibly valuable all of that is. We’re all one another’s guardian angels.
SOME NOTES ON THIS BOOK’S PRODUCTION
The art for the jacket was created by Chris Sheban primarily in watercolor, with a number of layered washes to build up color and value. Once dry, Prismacolor pencil, pastel, and gouache were added over the watercolor to define lighter areas, like the clouds and the reflections on the water. The jacket art was printed on 157 gsm Oji Zunma FSC™-certified glossy art paper. The art for the interiors was created by Martijn van der Linden using tint white, carbon black, and cerulean blue acrylic paint on paper. The text was set in Sabon MT, a serif typeface designed by the German-born typographer and designer Jan Tschichold in 1964 and based on types by Claude Garamond. The display type was set in Steadfast, a full bodied sans serif font designed by Todd Masui. Initial caps and headings were set in Wicked Grit, an eroded font designed by AJ Paglia. This e-book was created by Westchester Publishing Services.
Production was supervised by Leslie Cohen and Freesia Blizard
Book jacket and interiors designed by Sheila Smallwood
Edited by Arthur A. Levine
