April 16, 2018
"My only wish was to be back on the wing with the wind in my face and nothing but sky for company," says wild-haired Grace Lafferty, an 18-year-old orphan and wing walker in her uncle Warren's barnstorming team. The year is 1922, and the troupe dreams of entering the upcoming World Aviation Expo in Chicago with their show The Soaring Eagles Spectacle, and winning a Hollywood contract. Grace singlemindedly pursues independence and freedom, as well as thrills and unbridled joy, through her daredevil stunts. Then she crosses paths with Henry Patton, a dashing mechanic, who joins the team and causes her to weigh the risks of being the best in the sky. Their shady competitor, Alistair Rowland, creates obstacles for Grace as he attempts to sabotage her efforts, while returning to Chicago (where Grace lost her family) provides emotional resonance. Trueblood's action-packed first novel explores the post-World War I époque with visceral period detail, and Grace's ambition carries the story about fighting for one's dreams, seeking stability in some form, and a team becoming a family. Ages 12â18.
February 1, 2018
Gr 7 Up-Grace Lafferty has been performing stunts as a wing walker with her uncle Warren and his barnstorming team since she was 13 years old. She fears that they will soon be forced out of the sky by bigger teams or stricter air regulations. Determined to keep her chosen family together, Grace will do whatever it takes to get to the World Aviation Expo where they can compete to win a lucrative contract with a Hollywood studio. The young woman fights her growing attraction to new mechanic Henry and sabotage attempts from a rival barnstorming team. Haunted by nightmarish memories from the war and a limp from a battle injury, Henry is stoic, professional, and infuriating to Grace who initially distrusts him. Trueblood's historical fiction debut looks at the years immediately following World War I when veterans returning home with flying experience and decommissioned fighter planes gave birth to barnstorming performances. Grace is an ambitious narrator and daredevil with a singular focus-often to the detriment of the team she is supposedly desperate to keep intact. Henry's struggle with shell shock makes him one of the most developed characters, but it is handled poorly and is used repeatedly as a reason for the team to distrust him. Readers looking for a more nuanced story of girls in flight will be better served by Elizabeth Wein's novels. VERDICT Breakneck stunts and romance lend this novel high action but also detract from the historical setting.-Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library
Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 15, 2018
It's 1922--an exciting time in aviation.During the previous decade, the world saw planes used in war for the first time. Many returning American war pilots now fly decommissioned training planes in barnstorming teams. These flying circuses are showing up across the country, and competition is fierce. The action takes off with white 18-year-old Grace Lafferty, the only female member of the Soaring Eagles, climbing out of a roadster going 50 miles an hour to grab hold of a ladder attached to a soaring plane. Money is tight, and Grace's team--her family--is in danger of closing up shop and going their separate ways, so she's entered them in the World Aviation Expo. This opportunity will be more than a performance; their future depends on winning the grand prize: a Hollywood contract with a steady paycheck. Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to receive a professional pilot's license, is Grace's hero and the book's only character of color. Coleman gives Grace advice about being a woman in a field dominated by men. Action scenes play out with a cinematically breathtaking intensity; however, by comparison, scenes on the ground are slow, though intriguing.Accented with such details as jazz, speak-easies, and period slang, it's a gas. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)
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February 1, 2018
Grades 7-10 For 18-year-old Grace, there's nothing better than walking an airplane's wings while it soars through the sky. As part of her uncle Warren's barnstorming team, the Soaring Eagles, she spends her time devising risky new tricks to do in the air, because while her life may be thrilling, it's far from glamorous. With increasing competition, she and her team work hard to draw a crowd, and often they don't take in enough money to get a hotel when they're on the road. Still, Grace has her sights set on competing in the 1922 World Aviation Expo in Chicago, where a win would mean a Hollywood contract and financial stability. Independent and headstrong, Grace is thrown for a loop when Henry Patton, a handsome war vet, becomes the Soaring Eagles' new mechanic and sets her heart aflutter. Romance, however, takes a backseat to the competition and sabotage attempts by a rival team. Trueblood's debut is an exhilarating historical novel with a strong feminist core that will appeal to a broad range of readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)