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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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| 33607002108481 | Middle Fiction | COLFER | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Conor Broekhart was born to fly. In fact, legend has it that he was born flying in a hot air balloon at the world's fair.
In the 1890's Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. Conor spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king's daughter, Princess Isabella.
But the boy's idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king. When Conor tries to expose the plot, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail on the prison island of Little Saltee. There, he has to fight for his life as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions.
There is only one way to escape Little Saltee, and that is to fly. So he passes the solitary months by scratching drawings of flying machines into the prison walls. The months turn into years, but eventually the day comes when Conor must find the courage to trust his revolutionary designs and take to the skies.
Author Notes
Eoin Colfer was born in Wexford, Ireland on May 14, 1965. After taking a three-year degree course in Dublin, he qualified as a primary teacher in 1986. Returning to Wexford he began teaching in a local primary school by day and wrote at night. In 1991, he left Ireland and spent the next four years working in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Italy. Resettling in Wexford after his arrival back in Ireland, he recommenced his teaching career, continuing his habit of writing after school. His first book, Benny and Omar, was published in October 1998. His other works include Benny and Babe, the O'Brien Flyers series, and the Artemis Fowl series. He became a full-time author following the success of Artemis Fowl. The Wish List won a Bisto Merit Award in 2001.
In 2015 he won an Irish Book Award in the children's category with his title Imaginary Fred.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Eoin Colfer turns his special brand of humor and adventure to detailing the amazing life and times of young Conor Broekhart--born in a hot air balloon over Paris and thereafter destined to use his fascination with flight to save his parents, recapture a kingdom, and win the hand of a princess. John Keating's boyish voice and slight Scottish accent give this swashbuckling adventure story (Hyperion, 2008) just the right combination of realism and fantasy. His narrative skill captures the personalities of both main and supporting characters--from the consummate cold-hearted villain Marshall Hugo Bonvilain to the dashing and cavalier Victor Vigny. Older listeners will relish this entertaining coming-of-age story whose themes of friendship and betrayal, love and hate, and courage and fear play out amidst breathless scenes of action and violence. Somewhere between the old Errol Flynn movies and The Princess Bride, this camp, contrived, and complex mix of eccentric characters and fantastical situations provides an immensely satisfying listen.-Cindy Lombardo, Cleveland Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
An homage both to the 19th-century science fiction of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, and to the superheroes of Marvel and DC comics, Colfer's latest brims with boy appeal. The story starts with the hero's portentous birth in a hot air balloon above the 1878 World's Fair, in Paris. But Conor Broekhart's home lies in the Saltee Islands, two (real) islets off the Irish coast, where he is raised as a favorite son, his best friend being Princess Isabella, King Nicholas's only heir. His key association, however, is with Isabella's tutor, a Frenchman who takes Conor under his wing, instructing him in fencing, fighting and the fledgling science of human flight-a consuming passion for many in the decade before the Wright Brothers' 1905 breakthrough. While the king is a progressive pacifist, his economy hums on the strength of diamonds mined in Little Saltee by prisoners under the control of Hugo Bonvilain, a Machiavellian despot harboring a deep grudge against the king. When Conor inadvertently witnesses a coup d'etat, Bonvilain twists facts to ensure the boy gets sentenced to mining gems in dank caves. The race to fly becomes more than a scientific pursuit; it turns into Conor's only chance to escape. Artemis Fowl fans will flock to this novel, and the polished, sophisticated storytelling here deserves an even wider audience than that bestseller. Conor Broekhart's superpower is his brain, and he uses his smarts to fight tyranny. A tour de force. Ages 10-up. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved