Flightsend

Publishers Weekly

Set in an English village, this novel has the feel of an earlier time (it was first published in the U.K. in 1999). Charlie has just moved with her mother, Kathy, to a neglected 150-year-old country cottage, Flightsend, where they hope for a new start after Kathy’s miscarriage. Descriptive passages of riotous plant life permeate many scenes (“and now here were the aconites, floating like golden lilies on the dark soil”). Kathy’s newfound optimism, apparently partly fueled by medication, is juxtaposed with Charlie’s anxieties about her social life, though, for 16, she is remarkably supportive and nurturing, so little tension is created. Instead, Newbery’s (At the Firefly Gate) story wanders through a series of benign events, such as the arrival of a handsome German pilot who gives meaning to the name of the cottage and eventually becomes Kathy’s beau. Charlie finds herself drawn to and attracting attention from her lecherous art teacher, and she longs for another man as well—her mother’s ex-boyfriend. Yet these potentially dangerous entanglements are, like the vegetation, eventually tamed. The result is a pleasing, quiet coming-of-age story. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)

School Library Journal

Gr 7–10—Charlie and her mother are moving. Kathy has quit her job at Charlie's school; the house has been sold; and Sean, Kathy's long-term live-in boyfriend, has been ousted. The only thing left is to find a new home, and a place to recover from the grief of losing Rose, Kathy and Sean's stillborn daughter, who had been so happily anticipated months before. Though Charlie doesn't want to go, she tries to be supportive of her mother when they move to Flightsend, a house in the middle of a nowhere village, and Kathy begins her gardening business, a far cry from her former teaching career. What Charlie doesn't realize is that Flightsend is exactly what both of them need. This gentle novel is about the teen's journey to maturity. Though not immature to begin with, she learns that the events of her first summer at Flightsend open new paths and understandings of herself and the adults around her. The characters are wonderfully developed. The leisurely plot unfolds quietly, meandering through Charlie's life and endearing her to readers. Put this book in the hands of teens who enjoy Sarah Dessen and know that they will not be disappointed.—Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL

Kirkus Reviews

Just when her life seems to be falling apart, an English teen gains fresh perspective when she and her mother relocate to a rural village. After her baby sister is stillborn, 16-year-old Charlie watches her mother's depression spiral into a midlife crisis. Seeking total change, Charlie's mum pushes away her partner, Sean, resigns her teaching position and moves to Flightsend, a gloomy cottage she hopes will signal the end "to everything that's gone wrong." Charlie tries to be supportive but fears her mother's plans will dissolve along with Charlie's own social life. Gradually, however, Charlie finds a job, new friends and artistic talents and discovers she's a country girl at heart. To her surprise, life at Flightsend may be just the beginning she and her mother need. Set against the contemporary countryside and teeming with English idioms, this is a quiet, reflective story of a remarkably mature teen who confronts her challenging modern life with lots of old-fashioned sense and sensibility. Should appeal to like-minded female readers. (Fiction. 12-16)

Children's Literature - Meredith Kiger

This coming-of-age novel by a veteran author depicts contemporary life in a rural English village as seen through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Charlie, short for Charlotte. Written in the English vernacular, this well crafted tale begins with Charlie and her mother, Kathy's adjustment to the recent death of newborn baby Rose, the child of Kathy and her (younger) boyfriend, Sean. Charlie's father left long ago when Charlie was two-years-old. Kathy's response to the death of her baby is to shut Sean out of her life, quit her teaching job, and move to a rural part of town to begin a plant nursery. Charlie is confused by her feelings of loss for her baby sister and her mother's rejection of Sean who had been living with them as family for five years. School is almost out for the summer and Charlie takes a job as a waitress at a local bed and breakfast. Her summer is an eventful one as new people come into her life through her work but also share connections to each other either through the cottage, Flightsend, where they reside or through the school which Charlie attends and where Sean and Kathy were teachers. Charlie's struggle to understand her mother's actions as well as her own feelings takes the reader through the emotional ups and downs of a teenage girl growing up in twenty-first century England. Reviewer: Meredith Kiger, Ph.D.

VOYA - Kelly Czarnecki

Charlie's (short for Charlotte) world is changing faster than is comfortable. Her mother, Kathy, recently suffered a miscarriage and a breakup with Sean, the baby's father, who is also the PE teacher at Charlie's school. Their house is being sold, and a new one, called Flightsend, is bought early on in the book. Not surprisingly, Charlie starts rebuilding her life in her new neighborhood. She gets a waitressing job at Nightingales and befriends a dog named Caspar that becomes a household pet. She reflects on her life when taking long walks to a now defunct airfield. Pieces continue to fall into place for both Charlie and Kathy, but not without a lot of stops and starts. This tender story will likely attract the reader who appreciates small details and complex characters. Unfortunately the cover art for the book, a watercolor with Charlie walking Caspar on a path, will entice few teens. Also, the setting of the book is England; while some of the vocabulary can be overlooked or understood by the context, many words and expressions are so far removed from how most teens in the United States speak, much less understand, that a short glossary would be very helpful. Despite these problems, it is a heart-warming tale with a well-developed plot. Reviewer: Kelly Czarnecki