CLARA POOLE AND THE WRONG WAY UP, by Taylor Tyng, Pixel+Ink, July 9, 2024, Hardcover, $18.99 (ages 8-12)
A girl earns her place — sort of — at Air Academy only to find nothing is quite as it seems in Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up, by Taylor Tyng.
Fresh off winning WOOBA’s One-Hundredth Air Race, Clara Poole should be flying high, but she’s feeling more uncertain than ever. After a summer of negative publicity, she arrives at Air Academy unsure if she even deserves to be there, to train as an aeronaut alongside her new friends . . . only to discover that there are several conditions to her acceptance.
But that becomes the least of her problems when a series of strange accidents throw her and her friends’ safety into question. Circumstances shift from bad to worse when the school’s headmaster goes missing, hurling the academy into disarray and under the iron-grip control of Assistant Head of School, Cyprian Hunt. Friends become enemies, and enemies friends as Clara tries to keep herself out of trouble. But trouble may the one thing she can’t avoid.
With humor, heart, and more death-defying feats that you can imagine, Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up is a stunning second novel that explores how the journey to get what you want is perhaps more important than the goal itself. —Synopsis provided by Pixel+Ink
If you haven’t already read Taylor Tyng’s Clara Poole and the Long Way Round, you need to. It’s great. And its sequel, Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up is just as fun.
The series follows Clara as she graduates from flying a lawn chair tied to a bunch of balloons to a competitor in a round-the-world adventure race to an academy designed specifically to train young aeronauts.
In Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up, author Taylor Tyng continues to explore Clara’s character, adding depth to an already compelling character. Some favorite characters from the original book take a backseat as this story focuses more on the students and the adults running the academy.
Series sequels can often feel like placeholders moving toward something else, but Tyng has kept the story fresh, and the book stands well on its own. (You do need to read the books in order, though.)
Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up is full of excitement and adventure. And Tyng’s exploration of friendship is strong. This is a great series for readers ages 9 and up.
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