Wall and the Wing, The - Softcover

Ruby, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060752572 ISBN 13: 9780060752576

Publisher: HarperColl, 2007

Synopsis

A few, nicknamed leadfeet, are forced to forever spend their lives closer to the ground. But one night, a girl named Gurl—a leadfoot, an orphan, a nobody—discovers that she can do something much better than fly.

She can become invisible.

Along with a new friend, a boy named Bug, Gurl begins a quest that takes her on a wild ride through the magical city, all the way to the handsome but lethal Sweetcheeks Grabowski—the gangster who holds the key to Gurl's past . . . and the world's future.

About this title

About the Author:

Laura Ruby lives in Chicago with her family. She spent much of her misguided youth writing angry, angsty poems and dyeing her hair lots of colors not found in nature. She is the author of Good Girls and Play Me as well as several other books for children and adults.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-8–In a New York City of the future, almost everyone can fly–except for leadfoots like 12-year-old Gurl, an orphan at the Hope House for the Homeless and Hopeless. When she sneaks out one night to rummage for food, she discovers that she can make herself invisible. When Mrs. Terwiliger, the matron who runs the institution, finds out about Gurls ability, she blackmails her into stealing clothing and perfumes and into fixing a $20,000 plastic surgeon bill by hacking into his computer. Bug, a new boy determined to fly, befriends Gurl and the mysterious cat she has found. They run away, only to be caught by notorious gangster Sweetcheeks Grabowski, who realizes that Gurl is a Wall, a person born every 100 years or so who can become invisible. He, too, has designs on her and will do anything to hang on to her. This poor-little-rich-girl story is packed with wildly eccentric characters, such as the Professor, who relies on his Answer Hand, which he bought on eBay, for information. There are also rat men with red eyes and filed teeth, a zipper-faced monster, a cat that showers and blow dries her fur, and mechanical monkeys that absorb the secrets and memories of the orphans. All of this fast-paced wackiness is told with humor, often black, that will have young readers giggling even as they cheer for Gurl and Bug, the Wall and the Wing.–Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperColl
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060752572
• ISBN 13: 9780060752576
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 327