Virginia Readers Choice Award
2009 · Middle School · Winner
About This Book
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.
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.
Series Placement
Book 1
Awards
Green Mountain Book Award
2008 · Grades 9-12 · Nominee
Iowa Teen Award
2008 · Young Adult · Nominee
Evergreen Young Adult Book Award
2007 · Young Adult · Nominee
Grand Canyon Reader Award
2007 · Teen · Nominee
Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Award
2007 · Grades 6-8 · Nominee
Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award
2007 · Grades 6-8 · Third Place
Nutmeg Book Award
2007 · Teen · Nominee
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award
2007 · Grades 6-8 · Nominee
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award
2007 · Grades 4-8 · Nominee
Young Reader's Choice Award
2007 · Senior/Grades 10-12 · Nominee
Beehive Award
2006 · Young Adult · Winner
Black-Eyed Susan Award
2006 · Grades 6-9 · Nominee
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award
2006 · Grades 9-12 · Nominee
Isinglass Teen Read Award
2006 · Grades 6-8 · Nominee
Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award
2006 · Young Readers · Honor Book
Rhode Island Teen Book Award
2006 · Ages 12 & Up · Nominee
Texas Lone Star Reading List
2006 · Young Adult · Commended
Young Adult Canadian Book Award
2005 · Young Adult · Honor Book
Michael L. Printz Award
2005 · Young Adult · Honor Book
Governor General's Literary Award
2004 · Children's Literature · Winner
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