Wanting the wings was probably not the message they meant for me to take away.

October 29, 2010 6:40 AM

Book-Finding Filter: I'm looking for a middle-grade book about a girl who buys a huge pair of wings and glues them to her back.

My Google-Fu has failed me big time on this one. I remember reading this book sometime in the early '80s, but it may have been published in the late '70s.

The lead character is a girl, maybe around 10-12 years old. In my hazy memory, she has an unhappy home life. She buys a kit (possibly from a mysterious man) containing a pair of beautiful glossy wings and some glue. She glues the wings to her back, feels some pain, and discovers that the wings are now somehow growing out of her.

She does some flying, most notably as part of a migrating flock of (ducks? geese?), but finally gets tired and is left behind. Eventually the wings fall off, and I believe her family hugs it out at the end.

posted by themissy to media & arts (5 answers total)

Mail-Order Wings?
posted by KogeLiz at 6:48 AM on October 29, 2010

Got it in one, KogeLiz! Thank you so much!
posted by themissy at 6:57 AM on October 29, 2010

God, I loved this book. Thanks for posting this question--I hadn't thought about it in years!
posted by corey flood at 7:07 AM on October 29, 2010

Oh man, I remember this one. There was a similar middle-grade book called "Self-Portrait with Wings" that I read around the same time, in case this triggers any "that sounds sort of like this other book . . ." feelings in other mefites.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:05 AM on October 29, 2010

Hah, yeah, I thought of Self-Portrait too.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:06 PM on October 29, 2010