Stoneflight

by Georgess McHargue

Book Overview

Janie uses her power to put life in the stone animals that ornament New York buildings to escape her parents' quarreling, but when the animals start to turn her into stone she learns that having... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067067107X
• ISBN13: 9780670671076
• Release Date: March 1975
• Publisher: Viking Children's Books
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 6

Customer Reviews

Everybody must get stoned.

For quite some time I have, for reasons of my own, been trying to find fictional books for children in which statues comes to life. The few titles I've been able to find are scattered. It was, therefore, will great delight that I discovered the completely forgotten but surprisingly well-written, "Stoneflight" by Georgess McHargue. Set in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan, the story follows a girl with a startling ability, and the remarkably normal homelife from which she hopes to escape. It isn't that Janie doesn't love her parents. It's just that it's obvious that no one in her family has been happy for a very long time. Her mother is constantly laboring under the mistaken belief that once the family gets some recognition, they'll all be happy. Her father harbors modest ambitions that grate with his wife's newfound hopes and dreams. Janie, lonely and bored over a summer where all her friends have gone away, is caught directly in the middle of the two of them. She finds herself continually escaping to the rooftop, where she spends her days cleaning a beautiful stone griffin that sits on guard there. It almost feels natural to Janie when she finds that she has the ability to bring Griff (as she has named him) to life beneath her hand. Now Janie's problems are far behind her as she swoops and soars on Griff's back at night over the New York skyline. It's only when she attempts to bring about a gathering of all the stone creatures in New York City that Janie discovers that sometimes being a soft malleable human with the ability to be hurt is a good thing. It's funny, but when you read plot synopsis' (not mine) of this book, they all tend to mention an exciting climactic threat that appears literally 20 pages before the book is done. This is because the book isn't quite so hot on the whole bad guy thing. This is a book of delicate family relations. In such a light, New York statues coming to life almost seems a kind of afterthought. Originally written in 1975, McHargue's choice of overshadowing Janie's tale with the prospect of divorce was probably rather daring at the time. The fact that this divorce never goes through isn't important. Instead, Janie's journey and slow acceptance of the fact that adults very rarely know what they are doing, is well-thought out and written. There's a great deal of intelligence to her tale. So when you see her jump on the back of a griffin and fly high and wide, it almost jars. I know that in all good fantasy tales the fantastical elements of the story should be taken with a bite of reality. Just the same, it seems that McHargue has attempted a new kind of "Wrinkle In Time" (which she quotes from liberally) but with more emphasis on the parental elements than the bringing-stone-to-life situation. Personally, I found myself continually delighted by the locations in this book. This is probably because I live in Morningside Heights. I know exactly where Janie was probably living dur