Flying Jake

by Lane Smith

In pursuing his escaping bird, Jake discovers he has acquired the power of flight, which leads him to amazing experiences amid the birds outside.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Lane Smith was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but moved to Corona, California at a young age. He spent summers in Tulsa, however, and cites experiences there as inspirations for his work, saying that "[o]nce you've seen a 100-foot cement buffalo on top of a donut-stand (sic) in the middle of nowhere, you're never the same."

He studied art in college at the encouragement of his high school art teacher, helping to pay for it by working as a janitor at Disneyland. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration, and moved to New York City, where he was hired to do illustrations for various publications including Time, Mother Jones, and Ms..

Smith is married to Molly Leach, who is a book designer and designed the Smith/Scieszka collaboration.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/lanesmith

Reviews

[Katie Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this super interesting wordless picture book. The way that they were able to create a story based on only pictures, leading the reader to make their own unique or not-so-unique interpretations of the book. I loved the way that they used multiple frames within the story to show a sequence of events as well as portray the scenes changing throughout the book. The artwork looked cartoonish, but also distorted in certain ways in the way that the birds were drawn. It was interesting to see darker artwork on the bird's shapes and colors, although they were very nice to the boy. This story is about a boy who jumps out of bed and begins flying high in the sky and following a bird throughout the story. They communicate through song, him with his harmonica, and the bird with their chirping song. We can infer this because there were drawn music notes coming through his harmonica and then through the bird's beak. They go through an entire adventure going through clouds, until they find an entire flock of many different strange looking birds through the patch in the clouds. After some time, they then helped him get back home where everything went back to normal.

[Ruth A]

Genre: Worldless
Target Audience: Younger Elementary

Text to self: This reminds me of when I was a kids and in our tree house we had this rope where we could jump off the tree house and swing to the group. I would do that and I would pretend I was flying.
Text to text: This book just reminds me of all the children books that are related to their imagination and pretend they are flying.
Text to world: every little kid when they are little probably wish they could fly is some way. So they use their imagination to see if they could fly.

[Madison Wyeth]

I love the simplistic story this wordless book tells. The similarities between this and the book Where The Wild Things Are were very obvious and easily made me fall in love with this story as much as I had the latter. While the illustrations were astonishing, it was the collection and array of items included on each page that fully caught my attention. These little details kept us (my son and I) busy, talking about for hours on end.

[Kelly Ayala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Understanding a wordless picture book is interesting when doing it with others. I went through the pages trying to find the meaning to the book, from my understanding he is chasing his pet bird. when doing so he finds himself feeling like a bird, flying through the neighborhood and etc, I like how different pages have different types of illustration types .

[Nitoy Gonzales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is book floored me. No need for words to tell the story of Jake flying to the sky. Lot's of delightful scenes and Smith's illustrations are amazingly beautiful. This kind of wordless children's book is worth reading again and again. You'll never get tired of looking at this book. I hope I'll get a physical copy of this book for me and my daughter to cherish.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Flying Jake” by Lane Smith was a fun surprise to read. It is a wordless picture book and I liked the beginning because the story started right after the end pages, during the title page, and where the copyright page is stated. It reminded me of a cartoon feel and sometimes Jake would be flying out of the pictures, which was interesting to see. Some pictures were border, some where diagonal and some were full bleed. I can see how the sizes and borders help tell the story in this book. Its funny how the white spaces can also play a part into this book. When it was just Jake and white spaced around him, the reader only focuses on him but when it’s a full bleed picture you focus on everything that’s going on in the picture. There are also styles of pictures that are in rows, some are vertical and horizontal. There is a lot of action going on here where Jake goes on in adventure with his friend and somehow makes his way home. I feel like the journey to get to the climax of the book was so interesting and the journey to get back to his room wasn’t so interesting. I think I expected more pictures on the way home.

I would read this book in a small group or one to one setting. There is a lot to examine in the pictures and making sure every student has access to view it is important. It would be neat to get an overhead projector and show the pictures through that view so all students can see it and look at it on a blow up scale.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flying Jack is a wordless book by Lane Smith. The pictures tell a story about a boy named Jake who goes on an imaginative adventure to catch his pet bird that has escaped out of it's cage. As he follows his bird out of his house he soon starts flying and travels through his neighborhood flying by trees, houses, and people. He flies up in a tree and starts to play music when numerous birds start to arrive. His adventure of a day with the birds soon ends and Jake is lying in his bed still waiting for his pet to come home.
The story begins right away after the endpapers with 9 images in small frames. When you flip the page the title page interrupts the story along with the copyright page. The layout of these images are similar to the way David Wiesner formats his images. Some are full bleed where some are displayed in smaller frames like a comic or movie strip. The boards are thin black squiggly lines which to me represents playfulness. A few images break the frame when characters show strong emotion. The colors used in the images are pale greens, yellows, and browns, which represent nature.
Wordless books are always stories that children enjoy. It is amazing hearing how students are able to construct so much meaning with out any words. Any reader who enjoys imagination and adventure will enjoy this story.

[Joseph Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book talks about a boy named Jake who has learned the ability on how to fly in the sky based on seeing the birds fly. Jake uses two feathers from the birds to show his power of flight and he goes on to travel to different places to show his airborne might. While flying in the sky, Jake was able to fly with the birds so he could show that the birds were not the only ones that could fly and he was happy to show his ability to everybody in the book. This book is an awesome book because it would show kids on what kinds of abilities they could have in their learning or with their physical being just like Jake does in the story. Kids would act like that they would want to learn how to fly someday just like Jake and they would use their powerful imagination skills to imagine themselves flying across the sky with the birds or flying alongside airplanes. I loved reading this story and I would definitely recommend this book to teachers to read this to their students to get them hyped up to learn the ability on how to fly.

[Staphany Ramirez · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Flying Jake” by Lane Smith was an interesting book to read now that I am an 18 year old. It is a picture book that contains no words, which was difficult for me to understand. The whole looking at the pictures to understand the book was quite difficult for me. My understanding of this book is about this boy named Jake. Jake starts by following a bird in the story. Which leads me to think he's like to be a bird. This bird escaped his cage so that is why he follows it, from the cage it went on to the window. I honestly wouldn't recommend this book, because it was really difficult for me to understand since it had no words, and just pictures. I was quite disappointed to find read this book. Perhaps this book would be best for seven years and younger because since they cannot really read and distinguish words yet, but they do have a big imagination when you are that age. Imagination comes easily to someone that age.


Flyin

[Stephanie Gamache · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smith, L. (1988). Flying Jake. New York: Macmillan.
Target Audience: Ages 4 and up

Flying Jake is a story about a young boy who goes on a flying adventure with his escaped pet bird. Through a multitude of striking color drawings, this wordless book tells a brilliant story about Jake’s adventure way up high in the sky where he gets to meet many different birds, including some perhaps only a boy could imagine. After a night of music and fun, Jake settles back home with his head full of all he had seen, and done. Could it all have been just a dream? That is for the reader to decide. There are many fun ways a story can be created to tell along with all the gorgeous imagery Lane Smith provides. The only real question is how detailed will your story be or will you allow the images to do the majority of the storytelling?

I hope to be able to read this story to my own children someday. Very enjoyable wordless book that just leaves so much for interpretation.

[Mackenzie Wilson]

Flying Jake by Lane Smith is a cute children's book that is about a boy named Jake who wants to discover what it would feel like to be a bird. In this book, Jake takes flight chasing his pet bird which has escaped out of his cage and out the window. This book would be great for any special needs kids or any kids who love adventures, as are the experiences Jake goes through are wordless and inspirational. I found that this book says a lot, without having to say anything. Jake's adventures and encounters with the birds are innocent and heartwarming, and any kid would enjoy it! I think it would be a good read for kids between 4-8 and elementary classes!

[Bree]

This Book was very unique. It brought me back to when I first read, where the wild things are being a fully picture illustrated book with no text. I loved where my mind went as I read about Jakes adventure with his pet bird. Very cute.

[Shoaa Aljohani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is meant for very young children,as it is wordless with very simple picture.It is purpose is enjoyment.It is a high quality picturebooks,though,with a very young main characters and fantastic events in familiars settings.

[Amberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wordless picture book. I liked it at first but then it got a little to out there for me.

[Tammy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was just too busy for me.

[Elizabeth Hardin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had no words; just illustrations.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inventive, fun, funny, doesn't outstay its welcome. A delight.