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Summary
Summary
A creative, suspenseful novel from award-winning writer Laurel Winter...
Eleven-year-old Linnet is growing wings. Auburn wings, with soft feathers. For a while, she can hide them, but they grow larger and larger, almost seeming to take on a life of their own-while taking away Linnet's old life. Her mother, Sarah, knows what it feels like...almost. For when the young Sarah began to grow wings, her mother-Linnet's grandmother-cut them off. Sarah is a "cutwing." She swore that she would let her own daughter's wings grow when the time came, but now that it's actually happening, she has no idea what to do. And Linnet -- lost, confused, fledgling Linnet -- doesn't either...
Author Notes
Laurel Winter (born Laurel Anne Hjelvik) is an author of fantasy, science fiction, and poetry. In childhood she attended a one-room schoolhouse. Her first published fantasy story was "Mail Order Eyes" in 1988. She has since won two Rhysling Awards and a World Fantasy Award for Best Novella. She has also written Young-adult fiction.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-When 11-year-old Linnet begins to grow wings, her single mother explains that she, too, experienced the same changes as she approached puberty, but her mother brutally cut off her wings, leading to their eventual estrangement. When Linnet's mother inexplicably abandons her, the girl finds her grandmother, the only other person she thinks might be able to give her information about her wings. The woman then takes her to a secret sanctuary of winged people and cutwings-those who have lost their wings-in the wilds of Montana. As she and the other young people who live there experiment with flying and have some scary brushes with nosy reporters, Linnet begins to understand that she is not alone in the world and learns some secrets that will help her survive and thrive. Eventually her mother finds her and the residents of the sanctuary make plans for their future. While readers will relate to a preadolescent girl on the brink of big changes questioning her place in the world, the theme often overwhelms the plot, which is driven by several unbelievable contrivances, including Linnet's mother's disappearance. Wooden and unrealistic dialogue slows down the first chapter, but after that youngsters will discover a fast-paced and suspenseful fantasy.-Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Eleven-year-old Linnet, the sympathetic protagonist of this flawed first novel, is confused when she begins to grow feathered wings. Her overwhelmed mother, Sarah, whose own wings had been cruelly chopped off by her mother, refuses to amputate them, but doesn't know what to do. As soon as school lets out for vacation, Sarah drives Linnet off to Wyoming, where Sarah's mother lives. Sarah abruptly disappears, apparently having abandoned Linnet. Resourceful Linnet finds her way to her grandmother, who, remorseful and a "cutwing" herself, brings Linnet to a hidden refuge for people like her. Here, where the story should take off, it begins to grow muddled. Stuffed into the plot are descriptions of Linnet's competitive friendship with a sharp-tongued and winged teenage girl named Andy, their attempts to fly, Linnet's reconciliation with her mother, and a pair of tabloid reporters snooping around the house. Near the end, Linnet discovers a wider network of people with wings (they even have a Web site). She must decide whether to stay at the safe house, go with the network or follow Andy's conviction that they go public and let the world learn to accept them. Readers may be touched by Linnet's plight ("Could she be some sort of mutant, like the three-legged frogs they'd studied in science, changed by pollution or radiation or something?" she worries initially) or captivated by Linnet and Andy's first successful flight with water wings full of helium attached. But Winter moves too quickly from these moments, making it difficult for her story to soar. Ages 10-14. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
At eleven, Linnet finds herself growing wings and learns the cruel story of how her mother lost her own wings. Afraid of being labeled a freak, Linnet flees to a winged community in Montana, tries to fly, and thinks about defying prejudice by disclosing her secret to the wingless world. Mired in pedestrian episodes, this promising premise never makes it off the ground. From HORN BOOK Spring 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
While 11 is a time in a girls life when her body is undergoing changes, Linnets physical changes are highly unusualshe is growing wings. To her amazement, this bizarre fact doesnt surprise her mother Sarah, who it turns out also had wings at Linnets age. But Linnets grandmother had cut off Sarahs wings, not being able to imagine her navigating her way though life with them. After the school term ends, Linnet insists on going to look for, as she puts it, anyone else like me. After several days of travel and after being abandoned by her mother, Linnet ends up at her grandmothers, who takes Linnet to an isolated house way up in the mountains, a secret place where other winged people live. Safe in the community of others like herself, Linnet and one of the others, Andy, try to teach themselves to fly but for various aeronautical reasons, they are both unable to. Linnet and Andy finally realize that they are unwilling to hide for the rest of their lives, even if it means being called freaks by intolerant people. The two kids decide to take their chances in the outside world with non-winged people. Oddly, there is not much explanation and surprisingly little discussion in the book about how and why these particular people grew wings and what the significance is. While a few theories are bandied about, none are really explored. The plot and characterizations are not skillfully crafted enough to allow a suspension of disbelief, and the book veers towards pomposity, seemingly raising weighty, philosophical themes, but never really taking flight. (Fiction. 10-14)
Booklist Review
Gr. 4^-6. Eleven-year-old Linnet does not know why her shoulders itch and ache, or why there are weird bumps on them. But Linnet's mother, Sarah, does: she once grew wings, which her own mother cut off. Now that Linnet's wings are unfolding, Sarah must find another solution. Linnet winds up in Montana, abandoned by her mother, but taken in by a group whose members have wings or are "cutwings." This is Winter's first novel, and there's some awkwardness in the narrative, including an ending that discloses the existence of a worldwide network of winged people, who send a helicopter, no less, to save Linnet and her roommate, Andy, who are lost in the wilderness. Growing wings is a fascinating premise, but the book is at its best when it is revealing relationships: especially the rivalry between Linnet and Andy, and the jealousy between the winged Linnet and the scarred Sarah. The title and an evocative jacket will draw readers in. Ilene Cooper