Unaccompanied Minor

Description

Fourteen-year-old April May Manning spent her life on airplanes with her flight attendant parents. When her father dies in a crash, April's mom marries a pilot who turns out to be an abusive jerk, and gets Mom confined to a psychiatric hospital. So April takes off, literally, living on airplanes, using her mother's flight benefits, relying on the flight crews who know she's been shuttling between divorcing parents for a year. Then, there's a hijacking, but why is April's "dad" on board? April flees to the cargo hold with another unaccompanied minor she's met before, and they fight to thwart the hijackers, faking a fire, making weapons from things they find in luggage. At last, locked in the cockpit with a wounded police officer, the boy, and his service dog, April tries to remember everything her parents said to do in a crisis above the clouds. But she knows it won't be enough.

Hollis Gillespie is a humor columnist, writer and comedian based in Atlanta, Georgia. She wrote for Atlanta's Creative Loafing weekly for eight years until October 2008.

"April is a fantastic narrator ... a fun read that combines believable characters and an outrageous situation." - Booklist "A laugh-out-loud thriller about family court, money laundering and skyjacking.... Former flight attendant Gillespie's insider knowledge infuses April's account with confident authority. Her impeccable comic timing...will leave readers...in stitches. A high-sky winner all the way from coast to coast." - Kirkus Reviews "Unaccompanied Minor manages to incorporate elements of comedy, adventure, and thriller into an action-packed story. Hollis Gillespie had a snarky, dry wit...I found myself rapt. Read this one for fun, for laughs, and for a lot of in-depth information about how airlines work that somehow comes across as fascinating rather than dull." --About.com Young Adult Books "Meet April...one of my FAVORITE young adult main characters to date. Simply unforgettable, and the laughable-but-believable way the climax of this story takes place will keep you on the edge of your seat.... Pick this up for a great read." --YA Books Central (5 Star Review)