Skybreaker
Eos, 2005
Fantasy Fiction
ISBN-10: 0060532270
369 pages
Synopsis
Now at the Airship Academy, Matt Cruse has been sent to work on a ship for a week as part of his learning. While there, he discovers the Hyperion, the famous airship said to contain vast riches, floating around 20,000 feet in the sky. Now highly sought after by both friend and foe, Matt must choose whether or not he’ll take the risk to pursue the ship or simply give away the coordinates. Joined on this adventure by his friend Kate de Vries, a beautiful and mysterious young gypsy, and a young fortune-hunter captain who has a ship that will get them to the Hyperion, they must outwit their foes, nature, the traps that await them, and their own personal demons.
Critique
An excellent addition to the adventures of Matt Cruse, this text is in many ways better than its predecessor. For one, since Cruse is older and his life more complicated, the tension and layers of conflict deepen and move past the surface level of the simple page-turner adventure story. Although the book has less swashbuckling, the story is no less fun. Oppel makes light of many of the same issues that teens will struggle with in their pursuit of adulthood, including complicated romances, the battle with greed, and loyalty to friends and personal ethics.
At a larger level, even though this text takes place in a parallel world to our on earth, it does still deal with some of the same complex social issues that have arisen over the past few centuries, including the European racial stereotype of Gypsies and the battle between costly fossil fuels and inexpensive, renewable energy sources. Overall, the text takes too much of a lighthearted approach to the issues to be considered a true social commentary on them, but they do act as good layers of conflict that make the text more complex. I recommend this book to both adults and kids, with its main audience falling within the range of 8-13, geared more toward boys.
The other books in this series so far are Airborn (book 1) and Starclimber (book 3).
Rating Rubric
Enjoyable Read: Original Fantasy: Original Plot: Language: Asthetics: Depth In Characters: 
Depth In Story: Social Commentary: Layers/Complexity: Classroom Text: Overall Rating:
For the Classroom
Although this text takes place in a slightly alternate earth very similar to our own, it operates under the same natural laws as ours. It’s a great companion book to studies on the mechanics and engineering of the airship and the scientific progress of the time period in which the airship was an intercontinental means of travel. Also, Kenneth Oppel has a literature unit complete with a full study guide and curricula for this book on his website that can be downloaded as a PDF. It’s been developed by an experienced teacher and librarian named Martha Martin. I recommend it as an excellent resource for the classroom. You can download it from his website: http://www.kennethoppel.ca.
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