Book(s)

Airborn, Skybreaker and Starclimber

by Kenneth Oppel

I picked up Airborn when I took the kids to the library for the first time. I wasn't quite sure what I had selected, but I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a go.
May pages and hours later, I was very glad that I had picked up this book. In fact, I mad a quick trip back to the library to pick up the sequels.
Oppel has crafted a trio of exquisitely written books. The characters come to life through the dialogue. 
Character dialogue is one of the things that makes or breaks a book for me and these three were most definitely "made."
You can find them in the Youth section, but they should be required reading for all ages.
I am looking forward to reading more from Mr. Oppel. 
Synopses of the books are below.
Enjoy them at your own risk... of having a good time and lost hours of sleep.

Airborn
Winner of the 2004 Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature!!
Spyglass to my eye, I slowly swept the heavens....
Matt Cruse is the 15-year-old cabin boy aboard the Aurora, the 900-foot luxury airship he has called home for the past two years. While crossing the Pacificus, Matt fearlessly rescues the unconscious pilot of a crippled hot air balloon. Before he dies, the balloonist tells him about the fantastic, impossible creatures he has seen flying through the clouds. Matt dismisses the story as the ravings of a dying man, but when Kate de Vries arrives on the Aurora a year later, determined to prove the story is true, Matt finds himself caught up in her quest. Then one night, over the middle of the ocean, deadly air pirates board the Aurora. Far from any hope of rescue, Kate and Matt are flung into adventures beyond all imagining. . .

• A 2005 Michael L Printz Honor Book (ALA)
• Winner of the 2005 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
• Winner of the 2004 Red Maple Award (OLA)

The Sequel to Airborn...
At 20,000 feet drifts a legendary ghostship...
The Control Car of the giant airship is almost entirely encased in ice, the ship’s name barely visible on her tattered skin: Hyperion. Matt Cruse can’t believe his eyes. Can this really be the legendary lost craft, now a frozen mausoleum to a ghostly crew and a vast treasure? At 20,000 feet, aboard a decrepit training ship, Matt is almost unconscious from the high altitude, but of all the oxygen-starved crew, he alone remembers the Hyperion’s coordinates.
Back in Paris, it suddenly seems that everyone is after those coordinates. Kate de Vries, Matt’s rich, young lady friend, has her reasons. But what about the handsome captain, who’s going to pilot them back to the Hyperion? Or the mysterious gypsy girl, whose past is inextricably linked to Matt’s?
In an adventure that will test his courage, his skill, and his heart, Matt is about to take off on the ride of his life.

The sequel to Airborn & Skybreaker...
At long last, Matt Cruse is at the helm.
Though it’s only a summer job piloting a humble aerocrane, he’s thrilled to be a small part of something big. With every load, he’s helping to build the Celestial Tower, Paris’s extraordinary gateway to outer space. But Matt’s idyllic summer is short-lived. He narrowly survives a deadly attack by the fanatical Babelites, who are opposed to humans reaching the heavens. Worse still, his nights spent stargazing with Kate de Vries must end when she’s summoned back to Lionsgate City by her parents. It’s time she began to think about getting married.
But then a chance of a lifetime boosts Matt’s hopes of being airborne once more. Canada wants to reach space first, and the Canadian Minister of Air has asked Kate to join the first expedition as an expert on aerial zoology. There’s a place for Matt, too—if he can pass the grueling tests to become one of the world’s first astralnauts on board the incredible ship Starclimber.
It’s a race to the very top, and Matt is determined to be a part of the adventure. But can he outlast his competition? And if he is chosen to join the crew, will they ever return to Earth?