Air Born
JL Pawley
Steam Press
Pub: 2017

24 May, 2021

If you like adventurous fiction, then this is the perfect book for you. It’s thrilling, funny and hooks you in. Something about the book you might want to know before you read it is that every chapter is on a different person’s point of view. Sometimes if you can’t remember who is who it gets a bit confusing and hard to keep track, but it keeps it interesting.

This novel is about the adventures of six teenagers. The first character in the book is Tyler – a 17-year-old boy who has his whole life mapped out until one day he tries his first solo skydive. Something pretty odd happens… he grew something nobody else in the world has, as far as he knows… wings. As the news breaks out, he is wanted for a reward and he and his family are in danger. So he makes the very tough decision to leave his family and run away to the forest far away.

While the Tyler’s story is all over the news, another boy—Miguel— hears about him and is determined to find him because he too has wings. After a long night of searching, they finally find each other. Miguel is the second character in the book. He is Mexican and lives with his grandmother until she passes away. Together they try get as fit as they possibly can, so they can learn to use their wings use them for a purpose not for just being a weird feature.

While Tyler and Miguel are practising to fly, a group of people called the angelists are trying to find the boys, but for some reason when they do, they keep calling them “angels”. When the boys talk to the group, they discover a girl with wings as well but hers are golden. Because Tyler, Miguel, and the girl all have wings and are still very confused about why, she decides to go back with them. They manage to run away with the girl without much of a fuss. This girl is the third character in the book is Victoria or Tory. She is a similar age to the boys.

The teenagers need to work together to escape and survive. Read the book to find out how they manage it!

In conclusion, Air Born is really cool if you like adventures and cliff-hangers. There may have been too many characters as it got a bit hard to keep track of, but I like the different ways the characters learn to survive like cutting up their supplies so they can make a tail to finally learn to fly.

• Amelia Bayliss is 12 years old and lives in Christchurch.