Customer Reviews

Flying Lessons

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought this was an exquisitely written book that deals so well with a historical time period in the eyes of a little girl.

Ms. Matthews blends the situation of women at the time, the exhilaration of possibilities, the love of flying and the loss of an American icon all into a beautifully crafted whole. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and look forward to more from this very talented author.

If you like pie in the sky, this is not your book! If you like strong stories about real people dealing with real life, any of Ms. Matthews' terrific novels fills the bill! They're some of the best books written for young adults today! I have to say that Flying Lessons blew me away. It's a book about a young girl surviving her own messed-up life and it goes straight to your heart. In the end, you want to hug LaMarr Conroy for her strength and courage in making it through what will probably be the worst time of her life! Loved it!

I felt absolutely transported in time throughout this book, and really enjoyed walking along for a few hours inside the skin of LaMarr. The thing I love best about it is that Ms. Matthews never pretends that there is a simple, all encompassing, perfect ending to the messiness of life. I think kids need that kind of honesty, and I appreciate it being wrapped in such a wonderful package. But, that's the big picture, and I love the small details of this book too, like I got hungry every time Japonica's fabulous cooking was mentioned! This is a book to be savored, and shared!

I've just finished reading "Flying Lessons" and I loved it. Ms. Matthews insight into the human heart allowed me to feel the the thirteen year old LaMarrs'pain and hope after the disappearance of her beautiful mother Charmaine while flying off to California with her stunt pilot boyfriend. This is paralled later in the book when LaMarrs' heroine,Amelia Earhart, also disappears while flying around the world.
LaMarr goes to live with her mothers'brother,Vital Conroy and his wife Millie. A new world awaits her far from the carnival life she had known.
One of my favorite characters is George Mcclendon Tyler, a crusty old veteran of The Spanish American War, who had fought with Teddy Roosevelts' Rough Riders.His life now spent in a wheelchair writing western stories,he seemed most unlikely to be the one to break through LaMarrs' protective shield. I could go on and on about the many wonderful characters that LaMarr encounters on her journey to the acceptance of reality,but much of your enjoyment of this book will be meeting them for the first time.
LaMarr and her indomitable spirit is the essence of the story.

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I'm a big fan of Kezi Matthews books! In light of 911 and all the kids whose parents never made it back home that day, I'd say this is a book well worth reading. It's set in the Thirties and deals with one girl's way of surviving a terrible loss, a loss she didn't actually see and finds hard to accept just on somebody else's say-so. We all have different ways of surviving the awful things in our lives and this wonderful book takes us along with LaMarr Conroy on her painful but sometimes humorous journey from denial to finally accepting the truth. It's a deep and eloquent book written in Ms. Matthew's usual spare and beautiful style!

Thirteen-year-old LaMarr's unconventional, happy life with her Hollwood-hopeful mother, Charmaine, is torn apart when Charmaine and her stunt-pilot boyfriend disappear in his two-seater plane. Sent to live with unknown relatives in the South, LaMarr clings to her memories and dreams of flying herself someday. The time is 1927, but Lamarr's plight, her opening up to unlikely friendships, and her determination are just as relevant today. A great story for girls, that shows, without preaching, the power of an individual to "fly" beyond their limits and circumstances.

Kezi Matthews has become my newest favorite writer! I love her writing, the tender, honest voice she has and the way her characters come alive--makes you feel as though you have a whole bunch of new friends. I just wanted to reach into the book and give LaMarr a hug--the main character who has lost the only family she has ever known but who never gives up hope and manages to keep her own unique brand of spunk. This writer's books stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

Flying Lessons by Kezi Matthews is another example of the authors grasp of life as lived by real people. There is love, understanding, mystery, compassion, hope and all the other elements that make a book come alive. LaMarr is a perfect example of Flying Lessons dedication, "To all the children who find a way to go on..." Don't miss this one and look forward to Kezi Matthews' next.

I loved this book. The characters are so real, they draw you right into the story and you almost forget you're actually reading a book. Matthews lyrical writing voice adds to the nostalgic, sad, funny, colorful tone of the story. Children will relate to LaMarr - ache with her, laugh with her, cry with her. Another winner from a fine writer...

Author Kezi Matthews deals with the grief of a 13 year old protagonist to a much older audience. The story is somber and the plot is lackluster. The appeal of Flying Lessons will be limited to introspective, late teen girls.

As an adult, I appreciated being transported back to the late 1930's. Matthews kept my interest with the artifacts of the time that she weaves into her story. Bus travel, Hollywood divas, transition from icebox to Kelvinator, Western pulp fiction, and stunt pilots all made for much interest. And, I learned that if you were in a middle class marriage in South Carolina, you apparently were still well enough off to afford the services of a full time Negro housekeeper. The time of segregation and Jim Crow are adeptly subdued in this genteel household.

The protagonist is transported from one setting of adults to another. The reader anticipates but is let down that a relationship with a peer named "Truly" instead turns out to be a delusional manifestation of her episodic, psychotic reactions to grief.

Matthews' writing is very skillful. She makes use of poignant description and witty similes and she must have reached deep inside herself to be able to so evocatively portray the impact of grief and the journey to move on. Yet for all the portrayal of the protagonist's soul searching, the reader really has nothing to remember about this book in the future.