Stealing Air
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
You can't just ask for the chance to fly . . .When his dad announced they were moving to Iowa, Brian looked forward to making some new friends. But on his first day there he makes an enemy instead -- Frankie Heller, the meanest kid in town. Brian needs to hang out with someone cool to get back on track. . . .Alex has always been the coolest guy around, and good with money, just like his dad. But now the family is struggling, and he needs to make some cash to keep up appearances. Then an opportunity falls in his lap . . . .Max is a scientific genius, but his parents are always busy with their own work. Building an actual plane should get their attention -- if only he wasn't scared of heights . . . The answer to all three boys' problems starts with Max's secret flyer. But Frankie and the laws of popularity and physics stand in their way. Can they work together in time to get their plan AND their plane off the ground?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reedy (Words in the Dust) delivers a light story about friendship that wavers between fantasy and small-town realism. Brian has reluctantly left Seattle because his parents have teamed up with an Iowa professor to manufacture an ultra-light polymer dubbed "Plastisteel" under their company name, Synthtech. Showing off on his skateboard, Brian draws unwelcome attention from a bully and is rescued by the son (nicknamed Mad Max) of his parents' business partners. After the theft of Plastisteel samples lands Synthtech on shaky financial ground, Mad Max includes Brian in a top-secret venture of his own: the construction of an experimental flier (with exactly zero safety features) that they believe will convince an investor to sink millions into Synthtech. While Brian and Mad Max's attempts at flight should thrill readers who fantasize about amateur aviation, Reedy strikes some false notes: the boys' preferred diversions of The Beatles and Star Trek are outdated, and a romantic subplot is extraneous. The farfetched premise that a risky flight by two sixth-graders can rescue a high-tech startup doesn't quite earn the necessary suspension of disbelief to achieve liftoff. Ages 8 12.
