After a member of her competitive cheerleading team is injured in practice, sixteen-year-old Marnie is asked to be a flyer-the most coveted role in cheerleading.
The Soar Starlings team has a real shot at the provincial championship, and Marnie has only a few weeks to prepare. But as she scrambles to polish her lifts and throws, Marnie's personal life begins to unravel. First, her boyfriend of two years breaks up with her, and then her best friend Arielle, captain of the Starlings, disappears during a team trip to Toronto. As Marnie struggles to adjust to being both a flyer and the team's new captain, she realizes that, to be a leader, you have to let go of old alliances to make room in your life for new ones.
This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!
Junior Library Guild (JLG) Gold Standard Selection | 2011 | Commended
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"Fly Away features an interesting and different subplot revolving around Marnie's best friend's decision to drop out of her final semester of high school to focus on an art career...The book offers up few easy answers, leaving some issues to be resolved in readers' own minds. This short novel will appeal to reluctant readers and enthusiasts of nontraditional sports."