Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel
Reviewed by Jack W.

When Matt Cruse rescues an old man in a hot air balloon while on the airship Aurora, the man, who is dying, speaks of wonderful creatures in the air. It isn't unil two years later that Matt meets his granddaughter, Kate de Vries and wonders if his words were more than just the lunatic ravings of a sick man. Kate says she believes her grandfather actually saw something, and she intends to see it to. While the island her grandfather spoke about is not on any map, she is convinced it's there. What with storms and a meeting with the infamous pirate Szpirglas, she ends up gettering her wish as the Aurora crash lands on the very island her grandfather flew over. There they do find the mysterious creatures her grandfather described, but they also find danger. Can they escape with their lives to tell the rest of the world about their discoveries?

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