Girls Don't Fly

September 15, 2011

Kept grounded by her overworked parents, her very pregnant sister and four rambunctious younger brothers, Myra yearns to stretch her wings, but when presented with an opportunity to travel to the Galapagos Islands, she is not sure she has the courage to fly so far from home.

Myra likes things clean and simple, so when she loses her boyfriend, her job and possibly her whole future in a matter of days, her first priority is to get everything back in place. But when Pete, an eccentric graduate student, lands in Myra's life, she finds that organization might be for the birds. Soon Myra is dressing up as a giant chicken, organizing a rescue for lost hunters and even delivering a baby. Suddenly, winning a scholarship to do research halfway around the world does not seem so out of reach. A familiar premise—girl realizes her boyfriend is a jerk and then meets someone infinitely better—is made fresh with quirky particulars. Readers will relate to Myra's simultaneous desire for life to be different and exciting and fear of change. Chapter titles defining avian terms provide a narrative framework.

A sweet story that will appeal to romantics and birders alike. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-When she is unexpectedly dumped by Prince Charming, high school senior Myra takes chances she wouldn't have taken before. Intrigued by a scholarship contest to study plant and bird life in the Galapagos Islands, she has only a few months to write a research proposal and raise $1,000 to pay part of the cost of the trip. Could she really dance around outside the local fried chicken joint in a feathery costume? Then, Myra's college freshman sister shows up pregnant and becomes bedridden, one more responsibility to add to a list that includes her younger brothers and overworked parents. To make matters worse, she's competing against her ex for the trip to the Galapagos, but she begins to appreciate the mystery of local birds and to see who she is apart from her family and without Prince Charming. The protagonist is a delightfully spunky teen whose witticisms will keep readers laughing, and her deeply felt connection to her family and cool head in the midst of life-and-death crises will leave them with watery eyes. Fans of Sarah Dessen will want to grab this one.-Richelle Roth, Boone County Public Library, KY

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2011
Grades 7-10 To most people the Galpagos Islands bring back memories of science class, but to Myra they mean freedom. After being dumped by her boyfriend and dealing with four little brothers and her cranky, pregnant sister, a scientific expedition to anywhere would be appealing to Myra. To go, she has to write an essay and raise a thousand dollars, both of which seem impossible until she gets a push from Pete, a smart, handsome graduate student. While researching flightless cormorants, Myra must decide if she will remain a flightless doormat or take a leap. Chandler, the author of Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me (2010), again crafts a story with nature at its core. Writing with relish, she concerns her characters with bigger problems than the next school dance. Although not every teenager will be interested in bird facts, they will be inspired by Myra's self-discovery, while young conservationists will appreciate the message that there may be hope for the cormorant after all.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
Girls don't fly, and neither do flightless cormorants, the species seventeen-year-old Myra intends to study if she wins a research scholarship to the Galpagos Islands. The novel's title actually refers to Myra's tendency not to put herself on the launch pad -- to value everyone's needs over her own. Myra is a likable, level-headed narrator from a sympathetically drawn working-class Utah family. Her parents aren't cruel; they're just overwhelmed, with six kids including Myra's pregnant older sister, who's dropped out of college and moved home to sulk. They are used to their reliable second-born picking up the slack. Not normally an academic go-getter, Myra falls for the Galpagos when Pete, a grad student, turns up in her science class to tell them about the opportunity and shows a promotional film. She says, "I'm probably just feeling insane, but before I know what is happening to me I'm bonding with every lizard and lava rock. My brain is swallowing seawater." Chandler goes overboard in demonstrating Myra's capabilities (having her save two fishermen from drowning and deliver her sister's baby in the hospital parking lot is a tad much), but the depiction of small-town dynamics, high-school breakups, crappy after-school jobs, and Myra's growing desire to break free from limited expectations is both fresh and relatable. christine m. heppermann

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2012
Girls dont fly, and neither do flightless cormorants, the species seventeen-year-old Myra intends to study if she wins a research scholarship to the Galapagos Islands. Myra is a likable, level-headed narrator from a sympathetically drawn working-class Utah family. Chandler's depiction of small-town dynamics, high-school breakups, crappy after-school jobs, and Myras growing desire to break free from limited expectations is both fresh and relatable.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)