The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria ForesterMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was the first book I decided to read off the Iowa Children's Choice Award list, and as I was reading it, I decided it would probably be my favorite. I guess we'll find out in the next few months if that prediction was true!
OK, so I truly loved this book. It was a perfect harmony of adventure and charm.
It's the story of a girl named Piper McCloud. As you could probably tell from the title, Piper has the ability to fly. It doesn't come easy, but she practices hard and soon finds that it is the only thing that makes her truly happy. However, it does not make her parents, simple living farm folks, happy at all. They forbid her to fly and the only time Piper is allowed to leave the house is to attend church on Sunday morning. She has never had a friend. They believe that Piper has stopped flying and perhaps even grown out of it, and they take her to the town picnic where she joins in for a children's game of baseball. However, the other kids make fun of her, believing there is a reason that she is locked up in the house all the time. Piper, a strong-willed child, decides to show them a lesson. She flies straight up, high in the air, to catch what would have been a homerun. While she thinks she is a hero, others think differently. Her parents rush her back home to be locked up.
Soon, agents surround the house and a lady named Dr. Letitia Hellion comes in and convinces Piper and her parents that she can take her to her special school, INSANE (Institute of Normalcy, Stability, and NonExceptionality), where she assures them that Piper will be safe. Dr. Hellion wins Piper over quickly, but at the school, Piper soon discovers things aren't what they seem. There she meets a group of kids that also have special talents. Everything changes when she discovers a hidden secret, revealing the true purpose of INSANE, that she wasn't supposed to stumble upon. Piper and her friends have to learn how to embrace their special talents and trust each other in order to survive.
This book was written with a charming style but was action-packed and promotes the celebration of all types of people and of individuality. The book had several twists, most of which I hadn't seen coming.
Here are some of my favorite quotations from the book:
“It seems to me that it don’t hurt none to get yourself a dream and a plan. ‘Cause if you don’t, then you’ll never go nowhere.” -Piper McCloud
“Sometimes our true happiness comes from creating a balance between what we like and what’s in the best interest of others. And that’s called being a grown-up.”
“Ain’t nothing in this life comes easy to any of us, child. Every road you walk down’s got a price. Sooner you learn that, the better. Don’t matter the direction you go, there’ll be some bad mixed in with the good and you just gotta learn to take the one with the other.” -Piper's mother
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