Annotation: By the book Cabin Boy, and headstrong teenage girl explorer encounter air-pirates and mysterious creature. They must work fast, and overcome their differences to save their airship from both.
Justification for Nomination: Airborn by author Kenneth Oppel, invents an interesting world where airplanes were never properly invented, and airships reign supreme. He creates a detailed atmosphere of life on a luxury airship liner, and how such a place could be a home-like comfortable place for a young man.
In the story Matt Cruse wants only to become the next sail-maker (basically one of the people making sure the airship doesn’t leak), but his dreams are interrupted by the CEO of the airliner company thrusting his son into the position instead. Matt’s journey is further interrupted by air pirates, a crash landing on an island, and his newfound friend Kate’s quest to vindicate her grandfather’s discovery of a mysterious creature.
What makes this story worthy of a nomination is that it deals with many of the issues teens will deal with in school, and adolescence. First and foremost, Matt’s desire to gain an identity for himself by becoming a full-fledged member of the crew deals with this issue. Matt further deals with conflicting emotions and about making the right decision.
Matt often finds himself conflicted between his duty to Captain Walken, the Aurora, and his budding friendship/responsibility to Kate. While marooned on an island, Kate desires to go searching for a creature that her grandfather discovered, but Matt wants to obey the captain’s order to stay with the ship. He eventually is convinced to accompany Kate, who twists the rules to suit her needs oblivious to the trouble it causes Matt.
The final rationale is that Matt is forced to take on adult responsibilities. Due to Matt & Kate’s explorations the pirates who caused the Aurora to crash find out the Aurora is near their hideout. The pirates capture the crew of Matt’s ship and Matt must act, and think fast to dispose of the pirates so the Aurora can flee to safety. In the end Matt is successful, proving that he can handle adult responsibilities and be successful saving the ship where adults were not.
To conclude, Matt portrays the average teen by looking to be seen as an adult, taking adult responsibility, taking risks, having an idealistic view of the world, and testing the limits of authority (though not willingly at first).
Suggestions for improvement: Though this novel does have great descriptions, and portrays the teenage journey well some things could have developed better. The most prominent thing would be the death of the CEO’s son by pirates, and the fact that Matt and Kate contribute to the death of at least three pirates. Though this is an adventure novel, being the direct or indirect cause of several deaths should have caused the characters some deep thinking which was never dealt with.
Genre: Steampunk, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Justification for Nomination: Airborn by author Kenneth Oppel, invents an interesting world where airplanes were never properly invented, and airships reign supreme. He creates a detailed atmosphere of life on a luxury airship liner, and how such a place could be a home-like comfortable place for a young man.
In the story Matt Cruse wants only to become the next sail-maker (basically one of the people making sure the airship doesn’t leak), but his dreams are interrupted by the CEO of the airliner company thrusting his son into the position instead. Matt’s journey is further interrupted by air pirates, a crash landing on an island, and his newfound friend Kate’s quest to vindicate her grandfather’s discovery of a mysterious creature.
What makes this story worthy of a nomination is that it deals with many of the issues teens will deal with in school, and adolescence. First and foremost, Matt’s desire to gain an identity for himself by becoming a full-fledged member of the crew deals with this issue. Matt further deals with conflicting emotions and about making the right decision.
Matt often finds himself conflicted between his duty to Captain Walken, the Aurora, and his budding friendship/responsibility to Kate. While marooned on an island, Kate desires to go searching for a creature that her grandfather discovered, but Matt wants to obey the captain’s order to stay with the ship. He eventually is convinced to accompany Kate, who twists the rules to suit her needs oblivious to the trouble it causes Matt.
The final rationale is that Matt is forced to take on adult responsibilities. Due to Matt & Kate’s explorations the pirates who caused the Aurora to crash find out the Aurora is near their hideout. The pirates capture the crew of Matt’s ship and Matt must act, and think fast to dispose of the pirates so the Aurora can flee to safety. In the end Matt is successful, proving that he can handle adult responsibilities and be successful saving the ship where adults were not.
To conclude, Matt portrays the average teen by looking to be seen as an adult, taking adult responsibility, taking risks, having an idealistic view of the world, and testing the limits of authority (though not willingly at first).
Suggestions for improvement: Though this novel does have great descriptions, and portrays the teenage journey well some things could have developed better. The most prominent thing would be the death of the CEO’s son by pirates, and the fact that Matt and Kate contribute to the death of at least three pirates. Though this is an adventure novel, being the direct or indirect cause of several deaths should have caused the characters some deep thinking which was never dealt with.
Genre: Steampunk, Science Fiction, Young Adult
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