GETTING AIR

In this serio-comic adventure from veteran author Gutman, a boy and his friends survive a plane crash, but must find a way to stay alive in the woods until they’re rescued. Jimmy, a skateboarding fanatic, stands up to terrorist hijackers on a cross-country flight and later to his friends, but has to listen to his little sister, who actually knows something about wilderness survival. Mix in a beautiful young flight attendant and a sparky elderly lady for fun. The narrative features nice suspense but comes across more as a comedy, as the group never seems threatened by their wilderness experience. Plenty of adolescent humor and well-placed deus ex machina plot manipulations easily overcome the minor difficulties of making fire and finding water, food and shelter. If the humor sometimes seems out of place, it’s still perfectly pitched to the middle-school crowd. A great choice for reluctant readers. (Fiction. 10-14)