Murphy, Rita. Night flying.

Random House, Laurel-Leaf. 132p. c2000. 0-440-22837-9. $4.99. J *

To quote KLIATT's November 2000 review of the hardcover edition:

"Like all the women in my family, I have been flying since the day I was born," Georgia Hansen tells us. But there are strict rules associated with this astonishing gift of flight, set and enforced by Georgia's austere, autocratic grandmother--no flying during the daytime, no eating meat, no solo flights until the age of 16. Georgia is about to turn 16, and she is eager to fly on her own. Her initiation ceremony will take place on the family's remote Vermont farm, where Georgia, her mother, and her aunts have always done as Grandmother dictates--until the black sheep of the family, Aunt Carmen, appears, revealing family secrets that turn Georgia's world upside down and change the lives of all the Hansen women.

This brief but moving story, which won the Delacorte Press Prize for a First YA Novel. casts a spell over the reader. The sensation of soaring through the air is memorably described, and Georgia's courage in defying her grandmother is admirable. A lovely, haunting tale about the age-old adolescent desire to make one's own rules, spiced with the magical ability to fly literally, not just metaphorically: this should enthrall girls of middle school and junior high age. An ALA Best Book for YAs.

Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT