Time To Fly
J.P. Rehbine
language
(Plowshare Books and Media L.L.C., July 1, 2019)
Thirteen year old Dustin Windworth’s life just turned into a crazy carnival ride. His parents split, he moved away to his uncle’s farm, the kids at school think his long, traditional Ojibwe hair is freaky, and for some reason he’s not allowed to visit his mom in the hospital.Sure, he can figure out how to fix his dad’s truck and make Lego models better than the pros online, but when he finds out his mother is dying of cancer 250 miles away, and he’s not allowed to leave, he is forced to invent his own way to get to her. He has to say goodbye before it’s too late.Using things he finds in his uncle’s novelty warehouse, Dustin creates the ultimate flying contraption from a lawn chair tied to hundreds of party balloons. His great plan for a secret voyage over empty national forest land ends up going viral however, and every news channel in the midwest wants to follow the story...until he disappears into a storm cloud.Dustin needs to find a way to deal with more than suffocatingly thin, freezing air, and exhaustion. He has to battle with a self-image ravaged by a crowd that wants him and his long hair gone. To the watching world he becomes a target of entertainment and speculation, but to his family and three faithful friends that know his true plan, landing alive and completing his mission is all that matters.Dustin wrestles in the clouds with many questions. Will he make it in time? Will he make it at all, or were the destructive labels and words he was given at school really true? Dustin has more to reinvent than air travel, he has to reinvent himself.