Synopsis
When the substitute for Mr. "Fab" Fabiano never shows up and his sixth-grade students are on their own, they set out to prove that they can run the class by themselves. With a little ingenuity and some careful planning, they might just succeed. But when a fight breaks out between Bastian Fauvell and Rachel White over a classmate, Tommy Feathers, who died six months earlier, everything begins to fall apart. Can Rachel deal with the anxieties that plunged her into silence the day Tommy died?
Inventive and uniquely constructed, Flying Solo follows Mr. Fab's students hour by hour as they tackle the challenges of an unusual school day.
Ralph Fletcher has written many well-received books for children. He lives with his family in Birmingham, Alabama.
Fletcher expertly balances a wide variety of emotions, giving readers a story that is by turns sad, poignant, and funny, and little by little, realistic portaits of the complicated kids emerge. There's no Lord of the Flies anarchy in this thoughtful, absorbing novel, which has a story that will linger long after the book is closed.