Airborn

Airborn is set in a world where aeroplanes were never invented and enormous airships ply the skies. Lionsgate City, the largest city in Canada, rises with its towers beside the Pacificus Ocean. Matt Cruse works as a cabin boy aboard the Aurora, a high-end airship. One day he risks his own safety to pull an elderly man from a crippled hot air balloon, and that act sets off a chain of events he could never have predicted.

Soon Matt is working alongside Kate de Vries, the spirited granddaughter of the balloonist. Together they investigate strange, impossible creatures spotted drifting through the clouds. They must solve this puzzle before pirate attacks or a shipwreck bring their journey to a permanent end.

Kenneth Oppel, a Canadian writer, created this adventure, which won the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature and numerous other honours in Canada and abroad. It is the first book in a trilogy, followed by Skybreaker and Starclimber.