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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
Night Flying |
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Author: |
Murphy, Rita |
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Date Published: |
2000 |
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Genre: |
Fantasy |
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Grade Level: |
6 - 7 |
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Booktalker: |
Sam Marsh |
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Booktalk:
All the Hansen women have always flown at night, even in bad weather. Ever since great-great-great-grandmother Louisa Carmilina Stravona Hansen from Albania first learned how; over one hundred years ago. It was the grief from her broken heart after losing her husband and little boy in a shipwreck off the coast of Newfoundland in 1884.
Ever since that time, every Hansen woman has flown. Georgia Hansen has flown since the day she was born. Her aunt and godmother Eva is the strongest and most confident of the Hansen fliers. She is the one with whom Georgia has taken her training. Georgia’s mother, on the other hand, hasn’t flown at all since the day Georgia was born. Grandmother won’t allow it. She could never live in the same house with a daughter who was both a mother and a talented flyer. Grandmother has a lot of rules, and everyone abides by her rules—she is not someone you want to cross—cold, dusty and dry, like granite, that’s grandmother.
Three generations of Hansen women live in the household, as far out on the county road as one can go. Privacy, for undetected night flying. Georgia is the only child, and lives with her mother Maeve, petite and pretty, whom Eva says was the best flier in the family once upon a time. Eva is five year years younger than Maeve and is a painter and a friendly talker. Suki is the youngest, two years behind Eva, and plays most any instrument she can get her hands on. While Eva is the strongest flier, Suki has superior navigational skills.
No men live at the Hansens. That’s one of Grandmothers rules. “No meat” was from Great Grandmother Isadora—you’re not supposed to be able to fly if you eat meat (Georgia eats meat behind her Grandmother’s back). Great-Great Grandmother Gilda said “No flying in the daylight.” And, Great-great-great-grandmother Louisa said that Hansen must be kept as the last name of the family.
If Georgia stays around long enough, her rule will be “NO MORE RULES!”
Carmen is the eldest of the aunts, older even than Maeve. But, Carmen lives on the other side of the country and apparently has been exiled in Grandmother’s eyes. No one will even talk about her except for Mama, and she will only say “Carmen didn’t follow the rules and can’t be trusted.”
Georgia is almost 16, the time for her first solo flight. For the first time, Carmen comes to visit Georgia, in honor of her coming of age.
Of course, being Carmen, she arrives by flying in daylight. Georgia is the one who sees her arrive. The rules are about to be turned upside down, and life will never be the same at the Hansen Household.
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