Amazon.com Review
Life for Georgia Hansen on the eve of her 16th birthday isn't easy. Her grandmother, dominating a household of women, insists on unwavering obedience to her strict codes: no meat eating, no men living in the house... and no solo flying before the age of 16. That's right. Georgia and all her female relatives have the power of flight. This gift comes with a great burden, however. The Hansen women must keep their ability hidden from the rest of the world. Secrets seem to fill the house, especially when Georgia's long-lost (or banished) aunt Carmen returns for a brief stay, spurring anger, anxiety, and mystery. As Georgia prepares for her initiation into womanhood and first solo flight, she wrestles with feelings of rebellion and confusion--and then guilt, when she commits the ultimate Hansen offense.
Rita Murphy's first young adult novel, winner of the Delacorte Press Prize, delves deep into the heart of a family shakily held together after generations of shattering secrets. Georgia is a strong, resourceful girl, who must choose between soul-crushing loyalty to a rigid matriarch and the terrifying freedom of independence. A beautiful metaphor for the wrenching transition from childhood to adulthood, Night Flying will speak volumes to all teenagers who yearn to soar. (Ages 12 and older) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
Like Jane Langton's Georgie Hall in The Fledgling, the narrator of Murphy's enchanting first novel is learning to fly. As the story opens, Georgia Hansen is a week away from her 16th birthday and her initiation into solo flying. Picturesquely set in a timeless small town in Vermont, this thoroughly imagined story brims with details and a charismatic cast of characters. The Hansens are no ordinary family: Georgia is the sixth generation of women who can fly. The family lives under a strict set of rules enforced by Georgia's domineering grandmother: they cannot eat meat, there can be no men on the premises and they can fly only at night. Georgia embodies a natural storytelling voice that downplays magic with a folksy earthiness, including her descriptions of the hazards of flying, from electric wires to weather shifts to collisions with birds ("Geese are incredibly strong in formation. A flock could knock me out of the sky"), and the contrast she sets up between her own home and that of her friend Alice, whose mother is a midwife ("When everyone else around you is talking about vulvas and vaginas, it makes it easier to express your feelings"). When Georgia's rebellious Aunt Carmen returns home, buried family secrets surface and Georgia questions everything she once took for granted. In a fit of temper, she breaks one of the family's most sacred rules and must decide whether or not to take responsibility for her act. Murphy seamlessly links the metaphor of flying with Georgia's rite of passage. An auspicious debut. Ages 12-up. (Nov.)
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