This fictional story about a teenage girl on a hijacked plane is based on the author's own experience of being on a hijacked airplane in 1970. Anna is on her way to boarding school in England when Palestinians take over the plane and demand that a prisoner be released. The plane ends up on a remote airstrip in Jordan, where it is wired with explosives. The hijackers say they will blow up the plane in 3 days if their demands are not met. It's an inherently interesting story, but the reality of the hijacking is surprisingly monotonous. The captives are hot and sweaty and hungry and waiting in terror to discover what might happen to them. Anna and the other young people on the plane manage quite well in spite of not having adults traveling with them, and their story spoke to me as an adult reader with an interest in history. By sticking so close to what really happened, the book seemed to me to be almost a memoir, although the author states it is solidly fictional. I'm afraid that younger readers might wish for more action in the story or more relationship-building between characters, but readers who like fiction books based on reality will appreciate Anna's story of surviving a hijacking.
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