Summary and Reviews of Night Flying by Rita Murphy

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews The writing is full of apt and innovative images (e.g., Beulah the old Volvo wagon that is like a Southern woman, She just has weight and composure). The beauty and the danger of flight are skillfully imagined. While some readers may reprove the almost misandristic absence of men, for readers who suspend disbelief, the richly developed, seclusive fantasy world of the Hansen women with its own history, rituals, and mores will fascinate, and the conclusion, with the promise of Georgia's safe landing, will satisfy. (Fiction. 10-14)

Publisher's Weekly Like Jane Langton's Georgie Hall in The Fledgling, the narrator of Murphy's enchanting first novel is learning to fly...... Murphy seamlessly links the metaphor of flying with Georgia's rite of passage. An auspicious debut. Ages 12-up.

School Library Journal Despite its marvelous premise, the book has some flaws. The first-person narrative restricts how much readers know about the characters. Georgia's grandmother is a caricature of a domineering matriarch and it's difficult to understand her daughters' motivations and behavior..... Too many strands of the story are left unanswered, making it tough to sustain a suspension of disbelief. Still, Murphy is a writer to watch and there will surely be teenage girls who will enjoy her first novel. Grades 5-9.