Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Author: Kenneth Oppel
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 05/24/2005
Pages: 544
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 6.76h x 5.00w x 1.26d
ISBN: 9780060531829
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.1
Point Value: 15
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 77198 / Airborn


Award: 2008 Green Mountain Book Award Nominee - Grades 9-12


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/20/2005 pg. 79
Kliatt 07/01/2005 pg. 30

About the Author
Oppel, Kenneth: -

KENNETH OPPEL is the author of numerous books for young readers. His award-winning Silverwing trilogy has sold over a million copies worldwide and was adapted into an animated TV series and a stage play. Airborn won a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award and the Governor General's Literary Award; its sequel, Skybreaker, was a New York Times bestseller that was named Children's Novel of the Year by The Times (London). His other books include Half Brother, This Dark Endeavor, Such Wicked Intent, The Boundless, The Nest and Every Hidden Thing. Born on Vancouver Island, Kenneth Oppel has lived in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, as well as England and Ireland. He now resides in Toronto with his wife and children.