I loved this book, it was a quick read and it kept me thoroughly entertained all the way through. April is hilarious, even if she is a bit of a snarky know-it-all (I can honestly say I learned a lot of interesting random facts from her), and all of her companions throughout the book are likable and just as fun to read about. Unaccompanied Minor even surprised me at some points, which books rarely do for me anymore. I can usually guess exactly what is going to happen because so many of them are predictable and expected. With Unaccompanied Minor, I honestly wasn't expecting the story line that I received.

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a fast-paced read with an entertaining protagonist who is amazingly witty and has an amusing group of family and friends which never fails to make you laugh. ( )

There is just TOO MUCH with this book. The author tried to cram in every horrific, terrifying, and interesting plotline; within the first ten or so pages, I was rolling my eyes. Absolutely nothing about this book is remotely believable, and not in a fun way. ( )

I did find Unaccompanied Minor amusing, but I think it had a lot of problems in terms of pace and plotting.

Unaccompanied Minor is a short, YA adventure novel about a fourteen year old girl who comes from a long legacy of airline employees. When her mom’s in a psychiatric hospital and someone tries to kidnap her from her stepfather’s apartment, fourteen year old April Manning survives by living in airport lounges and passing as a flight attendant. Then, she happens to be on a plan when it gets unexpectedly hijacked by the same people who tried to kidnap her earlier. She has to save the day with the help of a wounded police officer, another unaccompanied minor, his service dog, and a 67 year old flight attendant named Flo.

Unaccompanied Minor is told through a compilation of various documents, mainly an after the fact interview by the police. I don’t think this structure worked well. For one, it meant that the entire first half of the book kept suggesting what would happen and referring to future events, which took forever to arrive. This is not a long book – only about 250 pages – but so much of it was spent explaining April’s family history instead of focusing on the main events. That combined with the style led to an ambling mess of a book.

All that said, Unaccompanied Minor was still funny in parts, if not laugh out loud hilarious. There were a few good running jokes – I liked the repetition of “We see things differently.” However, the most interesting part of this book was its setting in the aviation industry (particularly since it was written by a flight attendant…). It led me to wonder how many of the insiders secrets were true, such as the character Flo who had a secret smoking spot on every different model plane.

In the end, I would only reluctantly recommend Unaccompanied Minor as a lighter read.

Originally posted on ( )

On her fifteenth birthday, April Manning, whose family members all work for an airline and who has been hiding by taking one flight after another, relates the events leading up to her making a bomb threat on a jet. ( )