Growing Wings

A simple but beautifully done coming-of-age tale.

Linnet is horrified when one day her wings begin to grow. Her mother's reaction is almost worse. When it is revealed that wings are a part of their family (her mother had them too), Linnet isn't sure what the future will be like. To help Linnet come to terms with what she is, her grandmother, the one who cut her mother's wings years ago, will take her to a special place. A retreat, a hiding place, for people with wings.

There, Linnet will find a new sort of family; kind and motherly Ellen, her daughter Jan, shy and handsome Charlie, innocent and bold Jake, and fierce, prickly Andy. In their mountain home, Linnet will make friends, help protect their secret, and come to understand her show more strange ability.

And maybe, she will learn to fly.

Simple, heartfelt, and lyrical, Linnet's story is an inspiration even to the non-winged, and another one of those novels that makes it only too easy to imagine that it actually happened.

Note: Although this book has no relation to it, fans of James Patterson's Maximum Ride will most likely enjoy it, and there are many parallels to be found. show less

A fun read but seemed like a draft. It needed some editing and some fleshing out of parts. I read the ebook version and there were a significant number of typos, such as when a scanner program mistakes one letter for another- so it was still readable but slightly annoying.

this was an OK, quick read that promised so much but had a very dissapointing ending. 3.5 stars for the intersting ideas and charaters though.

Cant help but think that the wings symbolizes something else. Like letting your children spread their wings.

Reviewed by Holly Owen for TeensReadToo.com

Forget about the awkward stages of puberty. At age eleven, Linnet is going through something no other human has ever experienced - she's growing wings. And on top of that, her mother reveals a secret she's hidden from Linnet all her life - a set of scars on her shoulder blades from the wings that had been brutally cut from her back by her own mother. So maybe Linnet isn't the only one, after all.

Masking her blossoming wings with her long hair and loose-fitting shirts, Linnet manages to get through the remainder of the school year without having her secret uncovered. But the pain of keeping her wings confined is nearly unbearable, and her mother finally takes Linnet away from their home, where show more the young girl suddenly finds herself among strangers - strangers with wings.

Now that she's able to reveal her true form, Linnet becomes consumed by a desire to fly, even though the prospect of accomplishing it seems rather slim. Only one other, a girl named Andy, is just as determined to fly, driven by her yearning to escape the confines of the highly secretive stronghold. But Andy is moody and unpredictable, and as Linnet attempts to forge their relationship, she isn't completely sure she's willing to take the same risks as Andy to get what she wants.

GROWING WINGS is more than a fantastic tale of humans with wings, it's a story of the human spirit and the heights one can reach with a bit of courage. Through vivid details, both in her settings and characters, Laurel Winter has done a splendid job of bringing this book to life, giving us, the readers, a chance to feel what it might be like to experience the freedom of flight. show less