The Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly

By P. T. Jones

Things Mary doesn’t want to fall into: the river, high school, her mother’s life.

Things Mary does kind of want to fall into: love, the sky.

This is the story of a girl who sees a boy float away one fine day. This is the story of the girl who reaches up for that boy with her hand and with her heart. This is the story of a girl who takes on the army to save a town, who goes toe-to-toe with a mad scientist, who has to fight a plague to save her family. This is the story of a girl who would give anything to get to babysit her baby brother one more time. If she could just find him.

It’s all up in the air for now, though, and falling fast. . . .

Fun, breathlessly exciting, and full of heart, Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly is an unforgettable ride.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781771481748

Reviews for The Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly

[carolyninjoy-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly by P. T. Jones is a cleverly written book for children ages twelve & up. The dialogue has just the right amount of snarkiness.It is well done for the time when teens are not always comfortable with their peers & environment. It has touches of crush/romance as well as science fiction."She laughs, thinking she can embarrass me more than I can her. Oh, Mother."It's a fun story to read & moves fast. Because it kept my interest, I gave it four stars."The kids form a circle around the tree. They're full of righteous sugar & corn syrup, & they jump & throw their arms in the air like they're about to kill Piggy. Lord of the Flies is the one summer book I got to, all right?"I received a complimentary copy from ChiTeen & NetGalley. That did not change my opinion for this review.

[ekanderson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book made me smile. So much. Which might be weird, because it has some pretty dark moments. There's the floating boy, of course, who is at first debunked as an urban legend before Mary can prove that she saw him, that she isn't crazy, and if she doesn't do something, her whole town will be in trouble. There's the creepy balloon man, the contagion, the small town hysteria, the scary zealots, the asshole jocks and the absent parents. But there's also the moments of love and friendship and FLOATING BOY AND THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T FLY is a debut YA effort from team P.T. Jones. I'd say it's a triumph.When Mary first sees Floating Boy at a birthday party for her baby cousin, she comes home to find out that the news has already pegged the incident as mistaken identity -- floating boy is nothing more than a gingerbread-man-shaped balloon. But then Mary's brother starts floating. And before she knows it, she's busy tying him to his bed and trying to get Floating Boy to tell him why kids all over town are starting to float and the adults are running ridiculous fevers...and running to the ER.With her bestie Liv and an unlikely team of Allies, it's soon up to Mary and Floating Boy to confront the reality of the floating crisis. While some of the local teens are more than happy to fly around and party, Mary is the only one of them who has managed to stay grounded. Which means she's the only one who can save her brother when the crisis goes from something that kind of sucks to something that hits home.FLOATING BOY AND THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T FLY isn't the novel I thought it would be. It's better. It's more compelling than I could have imagined. With elements of mystery, suspense, romance, mad science and magic realism this is a book that probably has something for everybody. The lyric prose and snarky-loveable protagonist are just the icing on the cake. This is a title to watch this fall. Pick it up. Read it. Hug it. I dare you to resist. (Just kidding. Don't resist. Just read.)