Getting Air
By Dan Gutman
Copyright: 2007
Publisher simon and schuster
Genre fiction
Report by Matt Luke
My author is Dan Gutman, and he was born in
New York City on 10-19-1955. His parents got
divorced in 1968. He moved to Newark, NJ and
played baseball as a kid. Dan went to Rutgers
University in New Jersey. Dan now lives in
Haddonfield, NJ with his wife and kids.
Dan went to school for psychology but
psychology didn’t work for him. He became a
freelance writer then became owner of a magazine
and was a writer for it. The magazine went
downhill, so he became a freelance writer again.
He wrote a nonfiction baseball book “It Ain’t Cheatin’
If You Don’t Get Caught” for adults. Then, after he
had a son, he tried fiction for kids and wrote “They
Came From Centerfield”. He liked it and it became
a hit so he writes fiction now.
Dan has won no awards as an author but it is fun
and rewarding for him.
You can contact Dan Gutman at
dangut@comcast.net. His website is
www.dangutman.com.
Interest Level and Reading Level: Young
Adult
Reading Level: 9 to 12
Theme:
The main theme of the book is you should
never lose hope when you are sad. You can
trust others to help you, and everybody
helps everybody.
Overview:
Passengers get on a plane from New Jersey to Los
Angeles. The plane is hijacked. They killed the
hijackers and the plane crashed in the middle of the
woods. The only survivors were a flight attendant,
four kids, and an old lady. When the plane crashed
Julia, one of the four kids, got a broken leg. Arcadia,
the flight attendant, made a cast like thing by putting
two pieces of wood on the sides of Julia’s leg and
tied some vines around the leg so that wood would
not shift. The survivors had no food, so the boys
went hunting. They made a shelter out of the plane.
They built a half-pipe out of a layer of the plane.
They used tools to take stuff out and off of the plane
to make the half-pipe. The boys and the eightyyear-old woman went skateboarding in the half-pipe.
Problem and Solution:
The passengers aced many problems and created
many solutions. The first problem is that the plane is
hijacked. The plane crashes in the middle of the
woods with nothing but half a plane, sticks, a toolbox,
and a cell phone, but they have no service. They
were the only ones to survive the plane crash. They
were lost and stranded. A snake bit Dave and Julia
helped him by telling him it was not venomous and
wrapped it up in leaves and vines. When the plane
crashed, Julia got a broken leg. Arcadia put two
pieces of wood on the sides of her leg and tied some
vines around the leg so that wood would not shift to
be a cast. They had no food, so they survived by
killing animals for food. They made a shelter out of
the plane.
Setting and Point of View:
The main setting is
in the woods.
Minor settings are
in the plane and at
airports. The point
of view is from
Jimmy
Zimmerman.
Characters:
• Jimmy Zimmerman is the main character. The
book is written from his point of view. Jimmy is
thirteen years old. He skateboards. He likes
Arcadia.
• Arcadia is the flight attendant she helps Julia with
her broken leg.
• Julia is smart and she is Jimmy’s younger sister.
She helps everyone through their problems.
• Dave is one of Jimmy’s best friends. He is a
skateboarder. He likes to take control of
everything.
• Henry is one of Jimmy’s best friends . Dave and
Henry argue a lot. Henry is also a skateboarder .
Discussion Questions:
What would you do if
you were on a plane that
was hijacked?
What would you do with
a broken leg in the
middle of nowhere?
What would you if you
had no food?
How would you hunt
with no weapons?
Why would an eightyyear-old woman go
skateboarding?
If you liked this book, you’ll love…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Home Work Machine
Return of the Homework Machine
It Ain’t Cheatin if You Don’t Get Caught
They Came From Centerfield
Race for the sky
Back in Time with Benjamin Franklin
Back in Time with Thomas Edison
And other great books!