Pirate-cheers
"When a world is this richly imagined, characters this juicy, language this gobsmackingly fresh and surprising in a tale so riveting and yet complex—well, look out. Kate Inglis' writing is exquisite—never ordinary—and this book has that IT factor, a combination of magic and mystery and lushness. Inglis has taken the pulse of the planet and birthed this environmental adventure full of action and activism just as cli-fi (climate fiction) becomes the new genre.
Never didactic but wisely intentional, it is just a matter of time before The Flight of the Griffons takes off and lands in classrooms and homes everywhere. Missy Bullseye oughta rub shoulders with Harry Potter on the world stage. This is not hyperbole.
Hunker down. Read this BRILLIANT book. It is one of those rare ones. Watch for the work of Kate Inglis and watch for Missy Bullseye... rising, and along with those Griffons, taking flight."
— Author Sheree Fitch
In celebration of reviews that make me happy, I'm sharing bits and pieces of Sydney's illustrations from the book, and I just realized that I follow Sheree Fitch saying "The Griffons take flight!" with a picture of the Griffons crashing. Ha! Ha ha whee! But hey. It's not the flight that matters most. It's the recovery. It's a pivotal human theme. At some point, you go down and you hit hard. Then you fly again, and that's when the flight feels most righteously excellent.
Besides. This is one of my favourites. Finola, master pilot, is about to deliberately stall the Avenger's engine in mid-air. Cirrus, machinist, hangs onto some storage netting, as he has before. Rolf, on the left, the near-silent coxswain, will carry a bashed-up Missy to safety at Fort Walsh. And there's Gwynne, genius aerologist who figured out how to make jet fuel out of vegetable oil. And Missy. She can't hear, but she can feel the ship screaming.
The flying comes after this just as much as before. Maybe even more.
It's the holidays. Buy books! Get your copy of Flight of the Griffons for any kid or adult from about 11 years old and up at the following retailers and distributors:
Woozles, Canada's oldest independent childrens' bookstore (they'll ship anywhere)
Straight from the Nimbus Publishing warehouse (they've got signed and stamped copies—make sure you indicate that you want one—and they'll also ship anywhere)