Coretta Scott King Award

I had a hard time choosing a book to read for this award as I have read many and loved them all. I did however choose The People Could Fly The Picture Book by Virginia Hamilton.
This is a story of how certain Africian's could fly. When they were taken from their native Africia and enslaved they shed their wings because it was too crowded on the ships. The folks were so full of misery and sickness and those who could fly kept their power although they had shed their wings. Being a slave was brutal. The overseerer would point out those slaves who moved too slow and the one called the driver would crack his whip to slice-open cut of pain. One slave woman, Sarah, had a her babe on her back while she worked. She could not comfort her baby which would cry and make the overseerer mad. The driver was told to whip her. The old man slave known as Toby came to comfort her. Sarah said she could not last and Toby spoke magic words over her and she rose like a free bird and flew away. This happens several more times with other slaves until finally Toby himself flew away to what was called Free-dom. This story is passed down from slave to slave.
I thought this was a sad story. I read the author's note where she alluded to the fact that the Free-dom was probably a runaway slave. I considered this and while I know that it is probably true my first impression when reading this is the slaves were flown to heaven, in essence they died. The author's perspective is a happier one in the fact that the slaves went to freedom but I also felt that the death of the slave was an ending to the torture and in effect another more permanent freedom.
One of my favorite Coretta Scott King books is Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. I found it interesting that in that book a character also flies.