Up on Cloud Nine

By Anne Fine

Ian’s best friend, Stolly, is up on cloud nine. He’s in the hospital, unconscious, and hooked up to machines. The question Ian is trying to answer is: How did Stolly end up there?

In a way, Stolly’s always been on cloud nine, living life by his own rules and making those rules up as he goes along. His parents’ careers have them constantly rushing around, so Ian’s family has all but adopted Stolly. That’s why it’s up to Ian to figure out what happened to his best friend. But once the pieces start coming together, the answer doesn’t seem to make any sense.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 4, 2009
• ISBN: 9780307492432

Anne Fine

Anne Fine is one of Britain’s most distinguished writers for both adults and children.  She has twice won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award, as well as the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Smarties Prize and numerous other regional and foreign awards. She has twice been voted Children’s Author of the Year.

Reviews for Up on Cloud Nine

[2wondery_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book amounts to spending time with a very likable group of people. Stolly, who is unconscious in a hospital bed, is a unique adolescent - imaginative, quirky and honest, he gets away with much that other children don't; such as talking frankly about his emotions in class. His best friend, Ian , scribbles their life stories while waiting for Stol to wake up. Includes parents and school teachers and a few classmates in the circle of people who care about each other. Nicely drawn. I'll be looking for other Anne Fine titles.

[jovanh470volny · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Up on cloud nine is a seemingly pointless novel, it is more of a random collection of different memories shared between two very close friends, Stol and his friend, the main character. The main character in the first part of the novel, which is the only part that shows any evidence of an actual plot (along with random paragraphs and sections of the book), finds himself in the hospital waiting for his exuberant friend Stol's report on how serious his injury was. The book then goes into random collections of our main characters memory as he shares his past with Stol. What we can tell from these memories is that Stol is not quite you average boy, he is very eccentric, and clever, and seems to do things spontaneously. His random way of life has gotten him into a number of awkward and unexplainably unexplainable situations. In the end Stol finds himself in a very bad pickle, but in the end all is resolved and a new chapter in Stol's life begins.Though the book is very interesting, I would not recommend it for people who like to follow an actual storyline and plot, and not just read a book filled with random thoughts and memories. The book seemed more like a diary, a diary that was compiled by a very easily side tracked person, and somehow it makes sense in the end of the diary, and you are left baffled at the thought of it. Its title up on cloud nine truly reflects on what the book is about.