The Blue Between the Clouds - Steve Wunderli (3 of 5 Airplanes)

I just finished Steve Wunderli's first book, The Blue Between the Clouds. For those that are following the blog or who know Steve, The Heart of Halftime was his second book. I believe that he wrote the first book in 1992 and the second in 1996. While he himself told me that he liked his first book better, I enjoyed the second novel more.

The voice of the narrator in Blue is almost identical to the second book. The story is narrated by a young boy of about twelve years named Matt. It is set in a small town in central Utah in 1939. He and his Navajo friend Two Feathers run around town and get into trouble.

I think Steve had some good themes going in this book, but they are a bit underdeveloped. Both kids are fascinated with flying. This stems in part from their desire to escape their small-town futures. He pulls in the Icarus story a couple times, but it always seems a bit shallow. I acknowledge that you can't go too deep in a book geared toward young kids, but I still think he could have done more.

The plot seemed to wander and the stories weren't nearly as memorable as those in the second book. I'm pleased to see how Steve tightened up these weak points in his second book. In spite of its weaknesses, I'd still recommend that you read Blue. I bought it from Amazon for about five bucks. Let me know if you want to read it, and I'll pass it along to you.