The Girl Who Could Fly

The Girl Who Could Fly

By Victoria Forester

132 ratings 149 reviews 154 followers
Interest LevelReading LevelReading A-ZATOSWord Count
Grades 4 - 8Grades 10 - 8V670576

You just can't keep a good girl down . . . unless you use the proper methods.

Piper McCloud can fly. Just like that. Easy as pie.

Sure, she hasn't mastered reverse propulsion and her turns are kind of sloppy, but she's real good at loop-the-loops.

Problem is, the good folk of Lowland County are afraid of Piper. And her ma's at her wit's end. So it seems only fitting that she leave her parents' farm to attend a top-secret, maximum-security school for kids with exceptional abilities.

School is great at first with a bunch of new friends whose skills range from super-strength to super-genius. (Plus all the homemade apple pie she can eat!) But Piper is special, even among the special. And there are consequences.

Consequences too dire to talk about. Too crazy to consider. And too dangerous to ignore.

At turns exhilarating and terrifying, Victoria Forester's debut novel has been praised by Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight saga, as "the oddest/sweetest mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men...Prepare to have your heart warmed." The Girl Who Could Fly is an unforgettable story of defiance and courage about an irrepressible heroine who can, who will, who must . . . fly.

This title has Common Core connections.

Praise for Victoria Forester and The Girl Who Could Fly:

"It's the oddest/sweetest mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men. I was smiling the whole time (except for the part where I cried). I gave it to my mom, and I'm reading it to my kids―it's absolutely multigenerational. Prepare to have your heart warmed." Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight saga

"In this terrific debut novel, readers meet Piper McCloud, the late-in-life daughter of farmers...The story soars, just like Piper, with enough loop-de-loops to keep kids uncertain about what will come next....Best of all are the book's strong, lightly wrapped messages about friendship and authenticity and the difference between doing well and doing good."--Booklist, Starred Review

"Forester's disparate settings (down-home farm and futuristic ice-bunker institute) are unified by the rock-solid point of view and unpretentious diction… any child who has felt different will take strength from Piper's fight to be herself against the tide of family, church, and society."--The Horn Book Review

The Girl Who Could Fly is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Publisher: Square Fish
ISBN-13: 9781250072467
ISBN-10: 1250072468
Published on 10/27/2015
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 352

Book Reviews (150)

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This book is great. It starts out a little boring but in the middle its so satisfying! It has a few twists i guess. If you like this one there are apparently two more in the series. This book is very dramatic and interesting. I recommend it.

Question, what do you do when one day your daughter jumps off a roof and finds out she can fly? That's the question Betty and Joe McCloud are asking there selves when the same thing happens to their daughter. After rumor gets around that Piper McCloud can fly, people don't want to be friends with her saying "That McCloud girl ain't right in the head", So, when Dr, Hellion shows up at the McCloud's door, saying there is a school of people just like her, Piper is eager to go there, however, things aren't always what they seem....

'The girl who could Fly' was a great novel which kept me hooked on to the very end. Victoria Forester deserves a standing ovation for this masterpiece. It follows the story of Piper Mc Cloud, the girl who can fly and the girl who wants a friend more than anything else (except going to school maybe). After an intentional (at least, on Piper's side) revelation of Piper's flying to the extraordinarily ordinary folk of Lowland country, Piper as shunned as ever for having an extraordinary gift in a perfectly ordinary countryside. Enter Dr. Letitia Hellion, founder of I.N.S.A.N.E, who whisks Piper away to 'a school for extraordinary children just like her'. As Piper gets used to having everything i.e; friends and enemies (Conrad Harrington III), she feels that she has a less desire to fly. Meanwhile, Conrad bullies Piper and tries to get her to fly (and get in trouble), the last straw being throwing her precious wooden bird into the trash to be incinerated. As Piper searches for her bird, she finds other extraordinary creatures and abandons her bird in order to try and save all these creatures. Horror clouds her mind as she finds that Dr.Hellion is the one who ordered these exotic creatures to be incinerated. She flies to Dr.Hellion's office and tries to contact her parents and is stopped by Conrad, who tells her that the telephone has been bugged. When Dr.Hellion walks into her office, Conrad covers for Piper and they both leave peacefully. After lights out, Piper goes to Conrad's room, where he tells her the truth about the institution and that they should escape. Piper refuses to escape without the other nine children to which Conrad grudgingly agrees. When they finally almost manage to escape with all the other children, they are caught and Piper owns up and is so thrown into M.O.L.D, where she is tortured and eventually becomes crippled. With the shock of failing for the first time in his life, Conrad is bedridden and loses all hope of ever leaving the place which had enslaved him for four years. When he realizes that Piper is the light he needs, he manages to go to school again, to find that Piper is broken and cannot fly. His brain suddenly whirs back into life and he draws up an escape plan and on realizing that Piper cannot leave, volunteers to stay back with her. Jasper (another kid who forgot his power) finally realizes that he can heal others and so heals Piper and brings back her memory. Piper decides that rather than escaping they can revolt, which was a success and they leave the facility. On exit, they find Dr.Letitia Hellion out to stop them. When she reveals that she too can fly and tells her story to Piper, she slips and falls onto the cold rocks below, ultimately dying. Piper and the rest of the children (except Conrad; he lives with Piper and her family as his own did not want him) then go back to their families and live happily.

JuanM JuanM

wow

Piper McCloud is gifted with the ability to fly. After exposing her ability, Piper is taken to INSANE, an institute for exceptional creatures. After meeting an optimistic girl named Bella Lovely, Piper meets Conrad, a child genius. An unlikely pair, spy-style action, and exceptional dreams equal a fun-loving novel.

Perfectly amazing ! Action filled (but not full) and has just the right amount of feeling . I recommend this book very much . A great read !

I'm reading this book right now and it's got me so attached!! I love the setting, the characters, and everything else about the book!! I love it so much, and I can't wait to see what happens next!!!

This book is a heart warming story for me because of the courage and positive side of Piper to her friends.

This book is so cool. I love this book so much. I like the ending. I don't like that Conrad's dad said that he is no longer his sun. You guys should read this book!! It is awesome, amazing, and cool!!!

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