Amelia's Book Room: Airborn

In Airborn, 15-year-old Matt Cruse has been working aboard the airship Aurora for three years, since his father died. He’s only a cabin boy, but is hoping he will soon be promoted to sailmaker, like his late father. One day, the airship comes across a damaged hot-air balloon, and inside, a dying man by the name of Benjamin Molloy. When Matt visits the man in his last hour, he speaks of winged creatures in the sky, and that “Kate would love them.”

A year later, on a trip to Australia, Matt meets two passengers aboard the Aurora, a young girl named Kate de Vries and her chaperone, Miss Simpkins. Matt becomes fast friends with Kate, despite their difference in class, and learns that Kate is Benjamin Molloy’s granddaughter, and she is very interested in the creatures he supposedly saw.

Everything changes when the famous pirate, Szpirglas invades the airship—and from here I can’t reveal much more, and wouldn’t want to if I could, because I myself haven’t finished the book yet! Tee hee. I can tell it’s a great book, though. Author Kenneth Oppel’s descriptions and storytelling pull you into the story, and the cliffhangers leave you longing for more—I broke my pattern and read three or four more chapters than I should have, it was so good.

Kenneth Oppel also wrote the Silverwing series, and two other novels in the Matt Cruse series, Skybreaker and Starclimber. There is a movie in pre-production scheduled for release in 2011, starring Christian Vandal.

This week, I wanted to promote the really fun site I joined, Shelfari. Dekoposh also has one; you can see their shelf on the side of the blog. After making an account, you can add books that you’ve read, own, plan to read, or have on your wish list. My Shelfari account is here; I enjoy friend requests! Have a good week, everyone.