Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

This is another MHL book for this year and it's a thick one! It's a fantasy set in a world where huge airships are the way people travel (much like they used to travel on luxury ships like the Titanic). The story involves Matt Cruse, a poor but ambitious boy who works on the ship and dreams of becoming a sailmaker. He becomes involved in a wealthy traveler's quest to discover the truth of her grandfather's strange journals. When the airship is boarded by pirates and crash lands on a remote island, Matt and Kate find out that there really are flying carniverous beasts in the air, but their biggest problem is that the pirates have a station on the island. This book starts our a little bit slow then gets really exciting. The vocabulary is rich and the author never talks down to his readers. This one will be perfect for good readers of all grade levels.