Just Fly Away

February 13, 2017
Fifteen-year-old Lucy Willows is blindsided when she learns that she has an eight-year-old half brother, Thomas, a product of her father’s infidelity. Overwhelmed by her father’s past actions and her mother’s calm acceptance of them, Lucy goes into a tailspin and begins thinking that every young boy she sees could be Thomas. When she tracks him down and her father finds out, she takes off, seeking refuge with her estranged grandfather. Welcomed by him, Lucy finds comfort and begins to accept the hard truth that parents are fallible. In his first book for teens, actor and author McCarthy (The Longest Way Home) sensitively explores the difficult process of learning to accept loved ones despite their shortcomings, although Lucy’s inner thoughts can feel restrained and overly mature at times. Through discussions with her grandfather, Lucy begins to see her father as a complicated individual with a history that includes joy, sadness, successes, and mistakes. Readers will appreciate the honest conversations between Lucy and her family, which underscore the importance of communication to foster connection and understanding. Ages 14–up. Agent: David Patterson, Stuart Krichevsky Agency.

Narrator Suzy Jackson's accurate teen voicing captures 15-year-old Lucy's confused feelings when she learns of her father's brief affair, which resulted in the birth of her half-brother, who is now eight years old. Outraged at her father's betrayal, dismayed at her mother's acceptance of the affair, and not understanding why her younger sister seems unconcerned, Lucy distances herself from her immediate family. Her budding relationship with Simon, with its realistic exploration of sex, is not enough to assuage her anger, so with little money and no real plan, Lucy sets off alone to visit her grandfather, whom she's met only once. Jackson handles the kitchen sink of heavy emotions in Andrew McCarthy's debut novel through expert inflection, tone, and pacing. S.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine