Unaccompanied Minor
Fourteen-year-old April May Manning spent her life on airplanes with her flight attendant parents. When her father dies in a crash, April's mom marries a pilot who turns out to be an abusive jerk, and gets Mom confined to a psychiatric hospital. So April takes off, literally, living on airplanes, using her mother's flight benefits, relying on the flight crews who know she's been shuttling between divorcing parents for a year. Then, there's a hijacking, but why is April's "dad" on board? April flees to the cargo hold with another unaccompanied minor she's met before, and they fight to thwart the hijackers, faking a fire, making weapons from things they find in luggage. At last, locked in the cockpit with a wounded police officer, the boy, and his service dog, April tries to remember everything her parents said to do in a crisis above the clouds. But she knows it won't be enough.
My review
I liked this book however my complaints were that it jumped around without really good explanation. For example when April was kidnapped, there was no clues given as to the reason behind the kidnapping. Of course it was revealed the reason why later in the book but it was like it was a big secret as to why. Which kind of drove me crazy. I wanted answers but just got questions and more questions as the story went on because nothing was revealed until the end. There was not enough structure. The story went by in a breeze. Thus I could not just enjoy the story as much as I was too busy trying to piece together all that was happening and the "why" factor.
I so wished that I could have liked April more but I could not. I was suppose to cheer for her and I did but I thought she came off at times annoying, too smart for her own good, and a little boring. What I did like about this book was the world of aviation and traveling the skies. I had thought about being a airline stewardess at one point and probably would have done so until I met my husband. This is the type of life that I thought single people would be good for or people who have been doing it a long time before they met their spouse and not during. This type of job does require odd hours and lots of travel time away from home. I am interested to see what Hollis Gillespie comes out with next.
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