{"id":117,"date":"2012-05-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=117"},"modified":"2015-08-17T11:18:13","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T16:18:13","slug":"girls-dont-fly-by-kristen-chandler-fiction-dreams-family-blue-footed-boobies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"Girls Don’t Fly, by Kristen Chandler (book review) – dreams, family, blue-footed boobies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>A chance to study far away instead of babysitting all summer…
\nMaybe go to the university instead of dental hygienist school….
\nProve to ex-boyfriend Erik that she’s better off without him.<\/p>\n

Myra imagines herself in the Galapagos Islands<\/a> with its Darwin’s finches and blue-footed boobies<\/a>, famous tortoises and amazingly blue sea waters, even as her little brothers break things and mud-wrestle, her big sister drops out of college and moves back home pregnant, both parents work long hours, the family’s carpool schedules look like battle plans – no wonder that Myra feels like she’s holding everything together, even when Erik breaks up with her.<\/p>\n

Visit Myra’s study group site at Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake in the author’s slideshow<\/a>, watch for the next little brother disaster, and cross your fingers that Myra wins that scholarship!<\/p>\n

Find Girls Don’t Fly<\/i>\u00a0 at your local library<\/a> or independent bookstore<\/a>; if you order from the author’s favorite\u00a0 local indie bookstore<\/a>, be sure to request an autographed copy!
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/b>: Girls Don’t Fly \/ Kristen Chandler. Viking, 2011. [author’s website]<\/a> [publisher site<\/a>] [book trailer<\/a>]<\/p>\n

My Book Talk<\/b>: Oh, how Myra feels trapped! Her perfect big sister is suddenly pregnant, her three little brothers are a constant noisy mess, and now Erik wants \u201csome space\u201d \u2013 this isn’t how spring of senior year should go!<\/p>\n

When their AP Biology teacher announces a scholarship to study birds in the Galapagos Islands, Myra decides to go for it, even if it does require early morning Saturday excursions to Great Salt Lake Marina\u2019s bird observation area and a \u201chigh level\u201d scientific study proposal write-up and\u2026 $1,000 toward travel costs. Maybe she can scrape together that much money in just 3 months working part-time at the ice cream shop, right?<\/p>\n

Saturday 6 a.m. really is early, but the University of Utah graduate assistant who\u2019s leading the bird studies is enthusiastic enough to wake everyone up. Pete is excited that two high school kids from his hometown have a shot at this scholarship, so he helps them all with their project proposals as much as the rules allow.<\/p>\n

Erik makes yet another mistake at the ice cream shop and expects Myra to cover for him like she did while they were dating. When she doesn\u2019t and the manager insinuates that she\u2019s irresponsible like her big sister, Myra just quits.<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s got to find another job in this little town. Mom and Dad think she\u2019s saving money to go to dental hygienist school; Myra hasn\u2019t exactly told them that the scholarship requires that $1,000 travel fee, and they don\u2019t seem too optimistic about her winning it anyway, especially when future-dentist Erik is also a competitor.<\/p>\n

When the marina secretary quits, the Lake ranger offers Myra the job, part-time till school\u2019s out, then full-time in the busy summer. Alright! A chance to earn the money she needs, do some extra bird-watching for the seminars, and Pete is at the marina whenever he\u2019s not in class.<\/p>\n

But can Myra really get away from this town where her family is judged because they don\u2019t go to church like everyone else?
\nCan she come up with a scientific study idea that\u2019s better than Erik\u2019s so she can win the scholarship?
\nCan she keep thinking of Pete as only the group\u2019s study leader instead of something more?<\/p>\n

Everyone knows that Girls Don\u2019t Fly<\/i>, but Myra is determined to change all that in this story of family, dreams, life, and longing. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A chance to study far away instead of babysitting all summer… Maybe go to the university instead of dental hygienist school…. Prove to ex-boyfriend Erik that she’s better off without him. Myra imagines herself in the Galapagos Islands with its Darwin’s finches and blue-footed boobies, famous tortoises and amazingly blue sea waters, even as her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[22,125,75,45,5,118,18,40,46,36,85,15,74,91,21,57,35,6,8],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-behavior","tag-blogathon2012","tag-brothers","tag-competition","tag-coping","tag-economics","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-funny","tag-independence","tag-nature","tag-relationships","tag-research","tag-science","tag-self-image","tag-sisters","tag-surprises","tag-travel","tag-us-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6497,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/6497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}