The Horn Book Guide

OLDER FICTION

Chandler, Kristen

Girls Don't Fly

300 pp. | Viking | October, 2011 | Trade ISBN 978-0-670-01331-9 $16.99

(2) YA Girls don’t fly, and neither do flightless cormorants, the species seventeen-year-old Myra intends to study if she wins a research scholarship to the Galápagos Islands. Myra is a likable, level-headed narrator from a sympathetically drawn working-class Utah family. Chandler's depiction of small-town dynamics, high-school breakups, crappy after-school jobs, and Myra’s growing desire to break free from limited expectations is both fresh and relatable.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2012