Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up

May 15, 2024
Though initially thrilled to enroll in Air Academy, the premier school for aspiring balloon pilots, Clara soon finds that nothing is as she expected. After winning a prestigious air race in Clara Poole and the Long Way Round (2023), Clara expected to be acknowledged, if not celebrated, by the ballooning community. Instead, she's dismissed as a fraud and an "aero-not." If Clara thought her acceptance to Air Academy would do anything to dispel the criticism, those hopes are shattered upon arrival. As it turns out, she's only an alternate; her place in the class is conditional upon another student's withdrawal. Even worse, in a departure from tradition, the students in the incoming class are split into two groups and made to compete for their places in the school. It quickly becomes clear that Clara and her teammates have been set up to fail, and their losing streak frays even the steadiest friendships. After students are nearly killed in suspicious accidents, Clara receives cryptic warnings from an anonymous source that make her determined to uncover the truth before the disasters turn fatal. Clever and brave Clara is as winsome as ever, especially as she tackles ballooning's patriarchal underpinnings. This exciting second installment expands on the worldbuilding of the first while setting the stage for adventures to come. Clara reads white; there's ethnic diversity among the other characters. Captivating, with a cliffhanger that will leave readers ready for more. (Adventure. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2024
After winning the hot-air balloon race in Clara Poole and the Long Way Round (rev. 9/23), Clara is deflated to find she must compete for a place at Air Academy, where so much seems set against her. She is called a fraud and nicknamed "aero-not"; mysterious illnesses, injuries, rigged races, pranks, accidents, and a scheming assistant headmaster named Cyprian Hunt undermine her. Greta Gildersleeve, her mentor in the first book, is missing, but beloved teacher Wenna Pickney encourages Clara: "If ever there was a man stuck in the past, it's Cyprian Hunt. This would probably still be a boys' school if he had his way...This, Clara, is your time to thrive." She encourages Clara to challenge the rules: "Rewrite them if you must." More than a tale about a balloon race, this becomes the story of a plucky girl challenging a patriarchal system to prove she is where she belongs; readers will cheer her on, knowing how much is at stake. Tyng ably keeps the tale airy and flying forward, like the balloons on which his young aeronauts ride. "Girls must always support girls, no matter what," Wenna Pickney had advised Clara, and by story's end Clara and new friend Ophelia soar off together into a new adventure. Dean Schneider

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
After winning the hot-air balloon race in Clara Poole and the Long Way Round (rev. 9/23), Clara is deflated to find she must compete for a place at Air Academy, where so much seems set against her. She is called a fraud and nicknamed "aero-not"; mysterious illnesses, injuries, rigged races, pranks, accidents, and a scheming assistant headmaster named Cyprian Hunt undermine her. Greta Gildersleeve, her mentor in the first book, is missing, but beloved teacher Wenna Pickney encourages Clara: "If ever there was a man stuck in the past, it's Cyprian Hunt. This would probably still be a boys' school if he had his way...This, Clara, is your time to thrive." She encourages Clara to challenge the rules: "Rewrite them if you must." More than a tale about a balloon race, this becomes the story of a plucky girl challenging a patriarchal system to prove she is where she belongs; readers will cheer her on, knowing how much is at stake. Tyng ably keeps the tale airy and flying forward, like the balloons on which his young aeronauts ride. "Girls must always support girls, no matter what," Wenna Pickney had advised Clara, and by story's end Clara and new friend Ophelia soar off together into a new adventure.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)