Skyjacked

Gr 5 Up--Five friends who attend the prestigious Hartwell Academy in New York decide to take a last-minute camping trip to Idaho before beginning their sophomore year. Cassie, Tim, Emily, and Brandon have been close friends since kindergarten. Their families are wealthy, and they are used to having a private jet at their disposal. Jay, who recently transferred to Hartwell, is just a regular kid who must work to help his mom since his dad passed away. He is trying to have a good time but feels that he doesn't really fit in. The return flight home is anything but normal. There is a substitute copilot, they notice that the plane is flying west instead of east, and suddenly, Cassie becomes violently ill. Eventually, the kids realize that their plane has been hijacked--but by whom? And why? Cassie trusts the pilot, Tony, but he has locked the cockpit, which is unusual. Michelle Okolo, an intern at the National Air Traffic Investigation Center, ends up right in the middle of this crisis and wants to contribute however she can to the investigation. As the crisis team works to determine what is happening with the rogue plane, the young friends must come up with a plan to overpower the hijacker. But whom should they trust? And, even if they are successful, who will land the plane? VERDICT This riveting middle grade novel is full of excitement and suspense with every page-turn.--Annette Herbert, F. E. Smith Elementary School, Cortland, NY

Five high school sophomores returning to their New York prep school from a camping trip in Idaho realize that their private plane has been hijacked.The passenger list includes Japanese-American Cassie, whose father owns the plane; her best friend, Indian-American Brandon; football star Tim, who is white; Tim's Latinx girlfriend, Emily; Korean-American Jay, who feels out of place as a working-class boy on a baseball scholarship; and three white adultstheir chaperone, pilot, and a substitute copilot. Soon after takeoff, something does not seem right: Cassie becomes seriously ill, and the plane is heading west. The story unfolds in chapters that alternate between the viewpoints of the teens on the plane and that of Michelle, a 16-year-old Nigerian-American intern at the National Air Traffic Investigation Center who is trying to discover the identity and motivation of the hijacker. Readers learn about each charactertheir personal ambitions, fears, thoughts, and mutual history. With the clock ticking before disaster ensues, emotions run high, the kidnappees have violent emotional breakdowns, and everyone questions whom to trust before readers learn the true motive behind the hijacking. Using straightforward, unadorned language that will appeal to reluctant readers, Griffin (Saving Marty, 2017, etc.) seamlessly weaves in topics such as financial struggles, family expectations, and relationship complications, shedding light on the friends, their emotions, and the hijacking without slowing down the action. Diversity is indicated solely through names.Readers who crave nonstop plot-driven adventure will not be disappointed. (Thriller. 12-15) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.