Ask the Passengers

Gr 9 Up—High school senior Astrid Jones is more than ready to leave the small town of Unity Valley, PA, and return to New York City. While her mother works obsessively from her home office, her father smokes pot in the garage, and her sister lives out the life of a small-town girl, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table sending her love and her questions to the passengers of the planes she sees overhead. They are the only ones she can confide in about the secrets she keeps: the truth about her best friends, Kristina and Justin, and their picture-perfect relationship; how she really feels about the growing distance between herself and her family; and her attraction to her co-worker, Dee, who is an out lesbian. The planes' passengers can't answer her questions, but Astrid turns to them as her separate worlds collide and ugly truths spill out. Devon Sorvari gives a pitch-perfect reading and her voice is the ideal complement to the dry wit of Astrid's first-person narrative. More than just another coming-out story, King's novel (Little Brown, 2012) offers thought-provoking philosophical questions that teens will ponder well after finishing the novel.—Beth Gallego, Los Angeles Public Library, CA