The Girl Who Could Fly
by Victoria Forester
Published by: Feiwel & Friends
Form: Purchased Paperback
Big Themes: Uniqueness, Friendship, Gifted Children

Summary:
Piper McCloud comes from small town rural life. When her parents discover she can fly, they tell her she shouldn’t. Her flying should be kept a secret, and maybe her ability will just go away. Normal is better. But Piper can’t contain her ability. She’s meant to fly. And when word of her flying gets out, she is invited to a special school for gifted kids. This book was described as Little House on the Prairie meets X-men, and I’d say that’s an apt description!

What I Loved:

Voice: The story is told in such a quirky, charming voice.  You feel like you are surrounded by rural, small town life.  This more than anything else lured me in.

Eccentric characters and species: I loved all the abilities of the different children.  There were other gifted species as well and those fascinated me just as much, especially the giraffe and cricket.

Piper McCloud: Piper is an extremely endearing main character.  Her optimism and kindness to others might have made her just as special as her ability to fly.  Her name is pretty fantastic too!

Criticism:

Ending: The ending felt very anti-climactic to me.  One, the ending is pictured my copy of the book (image above).  I think this is cruel to the reader.  The biggest moment of the book as well as one of the book’s main surprises should NOT be on a book’s cover.  Two, I felt there was a lot of build up and little pay off.  The final challenges were overcome with relative ease compared to other obstacles.  I was really chugging along through conflict after conflict for the first half of the book, but the ending took me forever to finish.

Overall:
Three stars, maybe three and a half.  The anti-climactic, slow-paced ending that was ruined by the book’s cover image knocked this down for me.  But if you want great voice, gifted children, and a lovable protagonist, check this one out.