Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

2005 Printz Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Language: A handful of swear words (hell, damn) and 2 references to deity (Oh Lord, God in Heaven).

Violence: A pirate shoots an airman point blank in the head and he dies immediately. A wild animal attacks a young man. Two characters are thrown in a pit and left to die. Two pirates fall from an airship to their deaths. Another pirate is shot by accident. A wild animal attacks and presumably kills a pirate. The dead body of a young man is discovered; he had been shot. A group of wild animals devour a pirate.

Sexual Content: 2 innocent kisses

Adult Themes: Matt’s father dies when Matt is young. He spends his life running away from his father’s death and the sadness he feels at his loss. The airship is the only place Matt can feel happy. Characters are in peril for much of the book.

Synopsis

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy aboard the airship Aurora, the most luxurious ship of its day with elegant rooms, attentive staff and a steady stream of exquisite food. She is 14 stories high and with cargo, crew and passengers weighs more than two million pounds. She is a beauty and Matt knows every inch of her. His dream is to become Assistant Sail Maker, progress to Sail Maker and one day to be captain of his own airship.

Matt feels most at home when he is aloft.  On land he feels anxious and ill at ease and longs to be in the air once more.  On the Aurora crew, Matt has visited exotic ports and seen much of the world and the skies above, but when he helps rescue a wounded air balloon, its dying pilot tells Matt that there are wonderful creatures in the sky no one else has ever seen. Matt passes off  these tales as the ravings of a dying man, until he meets the pilot’s granddaughter – smart, spunky, wealthy Kate de Vries. Kate has boarded the Aurora to try and find the strange, flying creatures her grandfather wrote about in his journal.

During the voyage from Lionsgate City to Sydney, Australia, pirates attack the Aurora, holding the crew hostage and stealing valuables from the ship’s wealthy passengers. Then a violent storm forces the airship to land on an uncharted island. Could it be the same island that is home to the “cloud cats” Kate’s grandfather described? Kate is determined to find out, but she and Matt may discover more than they bargained for on this wild and dangerous island. In a race against time, can Matt and Kate solve the mystery of the “cloud cats”, evade the hazards on the island and save the Aurora and her passengers from marauding pirates? With ingenuity and courage they just might make it.

This book is very suspenseful and the action is non-stop. The  perfect mix of  loyalty, adventure, danger and just a little romance, makes Airborn an excellent read for young adventurers! Recommended for grades 6-9.