Favorite Part: The ending is epic…and I can’t spoil it. So you’ll just HAVE to read it!
Favorite Line: For every kid who has a dream, even if the odds are against you, don’t ever stop finding ways to fly. (from the Dedication)
Check out another favorite excerpt below.
Takeaway: Accepting and owning what makes you unique can help you to defy your limitations.
What does the author want you to know?
“Representation is powerful for young people and reminds them that they count and can do anything.”
Grade Level: 3-7
Age: 8-13 years
Published: 2021
Pin this book HERE
Buy this book HERE
Synopsis
Thirteen-year-old Nat Beacon is absolutely OBSESSED with: MUSICALS! She memorizes all the cast albums she loves, including her favorites Hamilton and Les Mis. Not only does she memorize them, but she belts them out and wonders if someone like her would ever get cast in a musical.
When Nat’s family moves from California to New Jersey, she stumbles upon a community theater that is holding auditions for a kids’ production of Wicked, one of her favorite musicals ever! Nat is shocked when she makes it into the ensemble. She immediately feels included with most of the cast— especially Malik, the male lead and cutest boy Nat’s ever seen. A week before opening night, troubles with the production arise and Nat has to find the courage to overcome her insecurities and give the performance she’s always dreamed of.
Takeaway
The Chance to Fly gives readers a chance to put themselves in someone else’s shoes as they read about Nat’s experience as a wheelchair user. A poignant part in the book is when Nat can’t ride in the bus with all of her friends because they accidentally rented a bus that didn’t have a wheelchair lift. It was an emotional moment as she watched everyone board the bus without her.
I love stories about characters with disabilities that don’t attempt to evoke pity or are didactic. Her disability is a focus of the book but Nat is also a normal teenager with the same feelings, ambitions, and desire to fit in just like everyone else.
The storytelling embodies Ali Stroker’s bright energy and I, of course, loved the all the Broadway references. Every chapter title is a reference to musical theater, and there are many more throughout the book. But, even if you’re not a musical theater fan, you’d still love this book.
Stroker and Davidowitz wrote a story for everyone to enjoy, not just someone with disabilities. Stroker specifically wanted to tell a story that she would have loved to read when she was younger. A story that she couldn’t find because stories with disabled characters were even harder to find back when she was a kid.
I love Stroker’s reply when asked about the moments in the book when she seemed embarrassed of her wheelchair.
Stroker: “It was a challenge for me to go back to those moments. One of the ways I describe it is just like you feel like you’re like so hot and you feel like people are looking at you for the thing that you are most self-conscious of, and maybe the thing that you have the most shame about. And it’s just overwhelming. But I wanted to write it because whether you have a disability or you’re in a wheelchair or not, you have those self-conscious and really difficult moments in your life, especially as a teenager, when you just want to be like everybody else, but you’re not like everybody else. And the reason it needed to exist in this book is because I want young people to know that they’re not alone in feeling like that.” -Sentinel-Tribune
Here is an excerpt from Chapter One which gives us the first glimpse of how Nat views herself.
Ali Stoker seems like an absolute delight. I’m so glad her and Davidowitz followed their passion in storytelling and this book is out in the world. It’s one of my favorite middle grade novels and I hope it ends up on many shelves. The world needs this book!
A quick shout out to Ali’s new picture book ALI AND THE SEA STARS. It recently came out and I can’t wait to check it out!
Buy her new book HERE