Flyaway

by Lucy Christopher Narrated by Harriet Carmichael

Overview

Lucy Christopher's debut novel Stolen was an international hit and was recognized with a Printz Honor. In Flyaway, Christopher crafts a touching novel about hope, friendship, and family. When her father collapses from heart problems and is taken to the hospital, 13-year-old Isla is racked with guilt and fear. She was the one who insisted her father take her out that morning to look at the wild swans, and now she could lose him forever. But then she meets Harry, a boy with leukemia, who seems to understand her like no one else. Together, Isla and Harry embark on a quest to save a swan that cannot fly-and discover that perhaps miracles really can happen.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In her first middle-grade novel, Christopher (Stolen) offers a story ribboned with metaphors involving themes of trauma, freedom, and hope. Isla and her father share a special relationship with the swans that migrate to a nearby lake each winter, until he is hospitalized with a heart condition. Isla’s best friend has also moved away, and she feels isolated until meeting Harry, an optimistic and imaginative leukemia patient undergoing chemo treatments at the hospital and awaiting a bone marrow transplant. After Isla discovers a lost swan that has been separated from its flock, she makes it her mission to renew hope in Harry, her father, and herself by teaching the swan to fly, using a da Vinci–inspired flying machine that she creates with help from her estranged grandfather. Readers who share Isla’s love of nature and penchant for introspection will easily gravitate to her; her determination and pithy observations make for a strong, sensitive portrait of a girl trying to make sense of difficult changes in her life, while learning to draw strength from those around her. Ages 10–14. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

Praise for STOLEN

"Complicated and beautiful -- this novel left me doubting my emotions and missing a place I'd never been." -- Maggie Stiefvater

"A vivid new voice for teens." -- Melvin Burgess

"All the tension of lightning, all the terror of thunder. A stunning, scary, and beautiful book." -- John Marsden

"It's Gemma's strength and clear-headed narration that keep the pages turning long after your skin has started crawling." -- The Daily Beast: Smart Young Adult Books: 10 Hot Picks

* "An emotionally raw thriller...a haunting account of captivity and the power of relationships." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Disturbing, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at once." -- School Library Journal

"Has a veracity and immediacy that rivets the reader to the page...A fascinating, disturbing novel." -- VOYA

"A complex psychological study that is also a tribute to the hypnotic beauty of the outback." -- Booklist

"An arresting, dramatic story...induces both shivers and thought." -- BCCB

Winner of England's Branford Boase Award for Best First Novel

School Library Journal

Gr 5–8—Isla shares a love for bird-watching with her father. When they go to watch the annual arrival of the migrating wild whooper swans, her father collapses and is rushed to the hospital with a heart ailment. While visiting him, Isla gets to know Harry, a teenage cancer patient. Feeling helpless with the health issues that both her father and Harry face, Isla befriends a young lone swan. She feels that if she can help save the bird, her dad and Harry will recover. Wonderfully descriptive passages of the swans and the landscape offset the somewhat depressing hospital scenes. Set in the UK, Lucy Christopher's novel (2011) is narrated by Harriet Carmichael, who has a very strong English accent, but handles all the voices competently. Her enthusiastic tones perfectly capture Isla's teenage frustration. Frequently used English terms such as jumper (for sweater), trainers (sneakers), and boot (trunk of a car) may confuse listeners. This beautifully written story may just be nominated for some of this year's book awards, as was Christopher's previous novel, Stolen (2010, both Chicken House), a Printz Honor Award winner.—Julie Paladino, East Chapel Hill High School, NC

JANUARY 2012 - AudioFile

Isla has a love of birds. One day, when she and her father are watching their beloved flock of swans, he has a heart attack. As Isla struggles with her father’s illness and the changes in her life, she meets a young man who is awaiting a bone marrow transplant and encounters a lost swan. Everywhere she looks, Isla wants to help. Narrator Harriet Carmichael is sublime as she portrays parents, siblings (and their rivalry), and an array of school friends and teachers. Each rendering adds to the outstanding dialogue and well-drawn characters. Listeners will find these moving situations and characters compelling. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

When newly constructed power lines ruin the annual return of the whooping swans Isla and her father rise early to witness, the death of several of the wild creatures and her father's sudden and severe illness both confound Isla and emphasize her loneliness.

At the hospital where her father awaits a heart operation, Harry, waiting there for a bone-marrow transplant, befriends Isla and points out the young swan he can see from his bed. At the nearby lake the swan, apparently abandoned in its flock's confusion and panic in the encounter with power lines, seems to imprint on Isla, imitating her, touching her with its beak and wings, gazing into her eyes. The first-person, present-tense narrative works to lend immediacy to Isla's fear and isolation and to make believable what might otherwise seem mere fantasy. Harry's lightheartedness adds buoyancy to the narrative, while images of flight and wings emphasize both the frightening and the hopeful.News broadcasts at the edge of Isla's notice about deadly outbreaks of bird flu contrast with the small unfolding of Isla's widowed grandfather's stiff grief as he helps her construct an art project—a harness and wings from an ancient stuffed swan—and innocent romance flutters between Isla and Harry even as the young swan regains flight and her father begins to recover.

Emotionally affecting and remarkably convincing. (Fiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169476491
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	10/14/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Read an Excerpt

I can see a lake, surrounded by trees. My eyes scan the surface of the water, searching...“Think there are any birds down there?” Harry says.I cringe, wait for the teasing. But Harry keeps quiet, genuinely interested.“Maybe,” I say quietly. “It's a bit early for them yet.”I turn back to study the lake, and I see something. Just one. I can't work out whether it's a whooper or a mute. Its feathers look grayish and young. My breath catches in my throat as I think about that lone gray whooper flying away from the power cables that day . . . all on her own. Maybe it's her. “What is it?” Harry asks.“Just a swan…”

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