FLIGHT: An Excellent Book Review by Teen Reviewer, Janelle Ekpo

I started Flight  (Monarch Educational Services, 2024) not sure what the story was about or how I would like it. What I found was unique lyrical poems and beautiful haikus sending the age-old message that grief isn’t the end.

The story follows Cassie, a fifteen-year-old girl who is thrust into heartbreak and heavy responsibility at the death of her father and the subsequent drug addiction of her mother. Before life started falling apart, Cassie was close to her younger sister, Courtney – but that was before. She was also good friends with her little brother – but he ran away, hiding in video games. 

When Cassie’s mom leaves for a temporary stay at a “better place”, Cassie decides that they’ve reached the end. Of course, they haven’t. Their neighbor, Mrs. Lee stays and takes care of the kids, and through her personal grief at the loss of her husband, she helps Cassie and her siblings to heal. Cassie is also given a unique assignment for her science class – one that makes her think about her life, who she really is, and where her battle with hurt is going. 

There were a lot of elements of Flight that I really liked, most of which are small details that add bursts of color to the poem. I liked the references to specific songs the characters would play throughout the poem, like “Stand By Me” and “Sweet Caroline” – because those kinds of connections make readers smile. The references to Edgar Allen Poe, The Giver, and other works of literature were also cool to see. They added depth – specifically relatableness – to the story. I also liked how school, a mundane, seemingly unimportant part of Cassie’s life, became influential to her struggle with grief. She studied butterflies, and the definitions of the word “butterfly”, and then compared both her own life, finding the ways in which she reflected the definitions. These comparisons added so much depth to the story! 

None of the characters were perfect. Whiting showed the growth of all of the main characters so beautifully.  No one is perfect in real life, but writers, (I speak as a writer), often have a hard time making their characters flawed, and then letting them heal. Cassie is imperfect, just as much as her drug-addict mother – and that’s real. They both heal, and that makes the story sweet.

The themes of change and hope in dealing with grief were beautifully woven throughout the poem, and Sandy Whiting expertly tied them into the mundane things of life, making the experience of reading this book feel very real and true. This book would be great for tweens and teens dealing with grief, or anybody who wants something that shows pain and healing in a way that will stick with them. 

These were some of my favorite lines:

Haiku for Jeremy, Chapter 113

A breeze passes by

My fears, whisked away with it

Now replaced with hope

********

Chapter 109

The sun is starting to set when
we finally finish our memory garden. We
planted it on the right side of
our house, closest to Mrs. Lee’s.

Our special meeting place.

A place between anger and loneliness, where
acceptance and love begin to bloom.

**********

Chapter 100

Mrs. Lee turns the station to the
oldies, again. I’ve come to enjoy it,
actually. It has a certain pep to it.

I’ve never listened to ‘60s music before
Mrs. Lee, but I’m finally starting to
realize – change doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

********

A Haiku for Mrs. Lee, Chapter 148
I almost burnt out
You hovered over my flame
And kept me alive

Janelle is a junior from South Carolina who is passionate about Christian fantasy, realistic fiction, and writing. She often helps students with their papers and write book reviews to encourage people to read quality books. She is working on growing her personal library! Janelle last reviewed Groundworld Heroes by Adrian So.

GIVEAWAY

Sandy will send an autographed copy of FLIGHT to one of you! (U.S. Addresses only). Please leave a comment by November 11 to enter. If you share this on social media or are a librarian or educator, you get extra chances. Just let me know in the comments.