Description

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WHUFFO: Someone who hasn't made a skydive (yet), especially a spectator. Supposedly derived from "What for do you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"

Sixteen-year-old Clancy is no stranger to extreme sports. Her father runs a skydiving dropzone, but after her mother dies in a freak accident, her father grounds her--permanently. Clancy is resigned to being a whuffo and packing parachutes for her dad's latest girlfriend until cute college freshman Denny starts taking classes at the drop zone. Denny assumes Clancy is eighteen, an innocent mistake that gives her a rush--and that she doesn't correct.
But the lies snowball, relationships are damaged, and suddenly Clancy isn't the person she wants to be. She wants to make things right . . . but it seems the more Clancy imagines the life of a skydiver, the more she imagines she can escape her dull reality of life outside the drop zone. Will Clancy make the jump?

About the Author

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Tracy Barrett is the author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, as well as being a scholar and professor. Her fiction titles include Anna of Byzantium (Penguin Random House), The Stepsister's Tale (Harlequin Teen), and the middle-grade series The Sherlock Files (Henry Holt). She knows more about ancient Greece and Rome and the European Middle Ages than anyone really needs to know, can reads lots of dead languages, and used to jump out of airplanes. She lives in Tennessee with her husband (also a former skydiver) and two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

Praise For…

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Clancy, 16, lives alone with her very protective father who owns and teaches at a skydiving school, the Drop Zone. Her mother died in a freak skydiving accident 10 years ago while practicing with her exhibition team. Clancy is very focused on school, but when she is not studying archaeological digs or packing parachutes at the DZ, she spends her free time with best friend Julia and her boyfriend, Theo. He is the classic “overbearing boyfriend” who thinks Clancy is a wilting flower. When Theo unexpectedly goes away for the summer and a very interesting college boy starts frequenting the DZ, Clancy is torn between her current, comfortable, life and a future of freedom that seems closer than ever. Clancy feels constrained by her present situation but has to confront her past before she can move forward in her life. The plot is greatly influenced by the personal and political landscape brought to light by the Gamergate controversy and the #MeToo movement. There is personal hardship, adventure and adrenaline, as well as romance (there is a heavy petting scene, but it is tame enough for an older middle schoolers). This classic coming-of-age story begs to be advertised for summer reading. VERDICT Hand it to fans of Cecil Castellucci’s Don’t Cosplay with My Heart and anything written by Sarah Dessen.–School Library Journal