Wings

Title: Wings
Author: Julie Gonzalez
# of pages: 208

Review:

Ben is determined that one day, he will sprout his wings from his back and fly, despite everyone in his surroundings rejecting this belief and calling it off as naiveness and a wild imagination. He is fascinated with all flying animals, even documenting the wing structures of insects and birds with sketches and diagrams, or studying Leonardo da Vinci's wing design. He jumps off his roof, off the top of his tree, off a railroad track over a roaring river, to see if his wings come out. He insists that others call him Icarus after the character in Greek mythology. He does well in school, but refuses to dedicate the rest of his life to anything other than independent flight. One day, his dream comes true, surprising those who knew him, and he sets off to find people who are just like him, human-like creatures with wings.

Wings portrayed the value of believing in oneself no matter what opposition or consequences there are. I would say that it gives a realistic picture of self-confidence, had human-like creatures sprouting wings been a well-documented event - hence, the novel won't likely serve any purpose as a self-help book.

Otherwise, this novel was mainly dull. It constantly focuses on Ben's dream to fly, and while it shows how strongly he believed in it, many of the small occurrences hardly meant anything in the end.

I would not recommend this novel to anyone, though I strongly advise that those who do read it, fully understand the dangers of jumping off high elevations. In real life, Ben's fate would be forever changed if he had a spinal cord injury and lost his motor skills (therefore having no chance of flight).

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

P.S. I apologize if my sudden review submissions have caused any inconvenience. I had some reviews that were half-completed from the past few weeks and I only recently finished them.