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Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane
Winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature PrizeThe Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane is filled with plot twists and extraordinarily strange characters. It is also a moving meditation on loss and finding family in the most unlikely places.Teenage cousins Meline and Jocelyn are sent to live on a private island with their eccentric uncle following the death of their parents. The girls, who are barely on speaking terms, must find a way to deal with their grief, with only their distant, scholarly uncle, a crazy Holocaust-survivor housekeeper and a mysterious butler for company.This moving novel, told in four characters' voices, is a layered account of a bad year from multiple points of view. Polly Horvath, one of Canada's greatest authors for children, once again brings humor and pain together in a cathartic, hopeful story that rises out of the wreckage of what might seem to be desperate lives.
272 pages, Paperback
First published July 24, 2007
12 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Polly Horvath
45 books300 followersPolly Horvath is the author of many books for young people, including Everything on a Waffle, The Pepins and Their Problems, The Canning Season and The Trolls. Her numerous awards include the Newbery Honor, the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature, the Mr. Christie Award, the international White Raven, and the Young Adult Canadian Book of the Year. Horvath grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She attended the Canadian College of Dance in Toronto and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City. She has taught ballet, waitressed, done temporary typing, and tended babies, but while doing these things she has always also written. Now that her children are in school, she spends the whole day writing, unless she sneaks out to buy groceries, lured away from her desk by the thought of fresh Cheez Whiz. She lives on Vancouver Island with her husband and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
January 3, 2008
So...I was on board for the first 2/3 of this book. The writing was snappy, the humor was dry and delightful, and the plot was at least intriguing enough to keep me turning pages. But let's be honest here: the cart falls off the horse at the end. I think the author hit the 200-page mark and decided she had better wrap things up PDQ. She abandoned the multiple narrative voices that had made the story so rich in favor of an Agatha Christie let-me-unveil-the-killer scene at the end, delivered from one perspective only. Frustrating.
May 9, 2019
I think I would've liked this book more if I weren't in such a deadened place myself. The appeal of Jocelyn's cough medicine is unarguable, and Meline's own approach of keeping so busy you never think about anything is also...unfortunately relatable.
From a purely literary stand point, I almost expected Humdinger to turn out to be Death or Grief or something, and the reveal of who he actually is would have carried more weight if we were given more of a denouement for each of the characters. If you're going to have the air of magical realism in your book just go all the way or don't bother with mystical secrets and private islands and people building planes to keep their minds and hands busy.
From a purely literary stand point, I almost expected Humdinger to turn out to be Death or Grief or something, and the reveal of who he actually is would have carried more weight if we were given more of a denouement for each of the characters. If you're going to have the air of magical realism in your book just go all the way or don't bother with mystical secrets and private islands and people building planes to keep their minds and hands busy.
August 10, 2009
This book reminds me a little bit of a cross between The lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and the secret garden. it about two girls whose parents die in a train wreck in Africa. They are sent to live with an uncle they barely know who lives on an island that is littered with wrecked planes from an old air force base that used to be there. The girls start trying to rebuild a plane from the wreckage as they deal with their new lives.
I liked this book because of the characters in it. They are a weird assortment of people who don't know each other that are thrown together on an isolated island. They are all dealing with various losses of loved ones and the associated grief. They all find different ways of handling grief, which are initially self destructive, but some of the characters eventually seem able to move on to more positive approaches to life.
The perspective of the book switches from character to character throughout the book. It is well done. The voices are unique and the plot moves forward with little redundancy despite all the changing of perspective. The characters are a little cold and hard to relate to, but in that way, they seem authentically like people who are in mourning.
I liked this book because of the characters in it. They are a weird assortment of people who don't know each other that are thrown together on an isolated island. They are all dealing with various losses of loved ones and the associated grief. They all find different ways of handling grief, which are initially self destructive, but some of the characters eventually seem able to move on to more positive approaches to life.
The perspective of the book switches from character to character throughout the book. It is well done. The voices are unique and the plot moves forward with little redundancy despite all the changing of perspective. The characters are a little cold and hard to relate to, but in that way, they seem authentically like people who are in mourning.
December 18, 2007
This is the first Horvath I've read, and I was quite pleasantly surprised by it. I'm torn between three and four stars, but I'm feeling generous today. And I was sad when the book ended...I love that feeling.
Clever use of words, great dark humor, heartbreaking alone-ness. I don't even want to describe the plot because it's much better than a plot summary would indicate. Two good quotes:
"The light was fading, which should have made the house feel cozy and even more Christmaslike with the millions of candles Humdinger had lit about the halls, but instead it felt like a large, empty death. Sorrow lay around our feet, like warm water, coming six inches up our legs. We waded through it."
(The next one's spoken by a non-native English speaking character.)
"That is not love. To love, you make the pact with the universe that someday separated from this person you will be and destroyed by such loss but this you are willing to do, knowing that love comes at such a cost. If no other miracles we see, that we do this over and over, this agreement at such a price -- shain vi di zibben velten, heldish."
(The yiddish phrase means "beautiful as the seven worlds, brave.")
Clever use of words, great dark humor, heartbreaking alone-ness. I don't even want to describe the plot because it's much better than a plot summary would indicate. Two good quotes:
"The light was fading, which should have made the house feel cozy and even more Christmaslike with the millions of candles Humdinger had lit about the halls, but instead it felt like a large, empty death. Sorrow lay around our feet, like warm water, coming six inches up our legs. We waded through it."
(The next one's spoken by a non-native English speaking character.)
"That is not love. To love, you make the pact with the universe that someday separated from this person you will be and destroyed by such loss but this you are willing to do, knowing that love comes at such a cost. If no other miracles we see, that we do this over and over, this agreement at such a price -- shain vi di zibben velten, heldish."
(The yiddish phrase means "beautiful as the seven worlds, brave.")
July 2, 2015
The thing about this book that might make it difficult is that none of the characters are likable. At best, they are all extremely flawed. All of them (with the exception of Humdinger) have suffered extreme losses.
But this is what loss does. It isn't pretty. It cannot be sugar coated. It makes it hard to get out of bed. It makes it difficult to get along with others. Daily grind is meaningless because once you have lost at this level, it makes no sense.
Placing these characters on an island is truly brilliant because the reader can really see grief without the outside world getting in the way. There is very little to distract them, and so we see raw grief take control.
Maybe some will argue that this is too much for a book intended for children. But certainly there are children out there dealing with such loss and grief. Sadly many don't have an Uncle Marten to take them in, or an island house to hide away from the rest of the world.
But this is what loss does. It isn't pretty. It cannot be sugar coated. It makes it hard to get out of bed. It makes it difficult to get along with others. Daily grind is meaningless because once you have lost at this level, it makes no sense.
Placing these characters on an island is truly brilliant because the reader can really see grief without the outside world getting in the way. There is very little to distract them, and so we see raw grief take control.
Maybe some will argue that this is too much for a book intended for children. But certainly there are children out there dealing with such loss and grief. Sadly many don't have an Uncle Marten to take them in, or an island house to hide away from the rest of the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2008
this was another just okay book that i had high hopes for based on my like of the author's previous books. i don't quite know why, but i didn't find it very interesting. and it wasn't believable for me.
May 17, 2008
This book was jumpy, leaping from one character's point of view to another. I found that I did not care about any of the characters, but managed to persevere to the end...only to find the ending a total let down.
April 13, 2009
What a great novel! Loved the quirky characters. I read this on a long flight and laughed out loud. Everyone needs an Uncle Marten.
October 24, 2018
Another great Polly Horvath book, with yet another ambiance and feel to it. Although evidently categorized as "children's literature," this one struck me as more mature in its content, focus, and themes than most of Polly's other books. It deals with death and loss and the dynamics of family, and the variety of frailties and quirks that impact us so differently as individuals in relation to each other. It's a profound and thoughtful, thought-provoking book in that regard, but not entirely satisfying; perhaps by intention, it doesn't offer any final resolution or solution to the dilemma. I have wondered in the past about Polly's own views on religion, which crops up here and there in her stories, but often with an apparent ambivalence. That concern seemed even more pronounced in this case, and the ambiguity means that the only real answer to death and loss and separation is missing in action. I did enjoy and appreciate the fact that the most stable and sympathetic character in the book was a catholic priest, and I'm left wondering if that wasn't, in some ways, Polly's own subtle answer to the questions I have had in the reading of her many books.
July 5, 2018
"It would break my heart if they thought I could leave them there. I don't think I can ever do that, leave them behind like that. So that means I can't go anywhere either. I'm just whirring up above it all in one spot."
"Ah, well, you see I view it a little differently. I see it like a lake. And when you have to be parted from someone, for whatever reason, you just leave that part of the lake."
"But they're still in the lake?"
They are the lake. So are you."
This book might be a little too quirky for some people, but it's a beautiful story about grief and myriad ways that people deal with it. I related so much to both Meline and Jocelyn in how they dealt with their losses, and the scene where they all tried to celebrate Christmas at their uncle’s insistence was so depressing and realistic that it was hard to read. The ending was a little abrupt and infodump-y, but that's really my only complaint here, and probably the only thing keeping it from being a five-star read for me. Tone-wise, it reminds me of Greenglass House - though the plots are pretty different, they both have quirky characters, an isolated mansion setting, and a sort of dreamlike quality to them.
"Ah, well, you see I view it a little differently. I see it like a lake. And when you have to be parted from someone, for whatever reason, you just leave that part of the lake."
"But they're still in the lake?"
They are the lake. So are you."
This book might be a little too quirky for some people, but it's a beautiful story about grief and myriad ways that people deal with it. I related so much to both Meline and Jocelyn in how they dealt with their losses, and the scene where they all tried to celebrate Christmas at their uncle’s insistence was so depressing and realistic that it was hard to read. The ending was a little abrupt and infodump-y, but that's really my only complaint here, and probably the only thing keeping it from being a five-star read for me. Tone-wise, it reminds me of Greenglass House - though the plots are pretty different, they both have quirky characters, an isolated mansion setting, and a sort of dreamlike quality to them.
April 2, 2021
- This book doesn't read like the other Horvath books. A lot of what I love from her previous work is that they were always so stubbornly hopeful and silly.
- The protagonists are much older in this book so it was interesting to see how different their views of the world were compared to Horvath's younger characters.
- You learn some Jewish phrases at the end so that was kind of fun.
- It was very open-ended and though that is not necessarily a bad thing, it felt like nothing was really resolved and the whole experience of the characters was just slowly learning to live with their grief day after day.
- The protagonists are much older in this book so it was interesting to see how different their views of the world were compared to Horvath's younger characters.
- You learn some Jewish phrases at the end so that was kind of fun.
- It was very open-ended and though that is not necessarily a bad thing, it felt like nothing was really resolved and the whole experience of the characters was just slowly learning to live with their grief day after day.
June 10, 2021
Al principio, me pareció un poco flojo. Seguí por páginas y páginas que describían días y días de interminable monotonía. Pero, el final (mas o menos las últimas 100 páginas) fue espléndido. Bastante acertado y un poco bajo de tono para enfatizar la pérdida de un anhelo. Por otro lado, la forma en la que relata la autora, el estilo de narración y la forma de describir cada escenario hacen de esta, una experiencia increíblemente inmersiva y digna de leer. Mis más gratas felicitaciones a Polly Horvath.
April 13, 2020
So very disappointing from this wonderful author.
March 20, 2023
A very casual read where not much happens.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2024
No es un mal libro, pero es tremendamente aburrido. Es una historia en la que no pasa absolutamente nada, y eso que a mí me gustan los libros sobre el paso de la vida
November 13, 2012
Reviewed by JodiG. for TeensReadToo.com
Jocelyn and Meline are cousins with nothing more in common than a shared tragedy; the death of their parents. Now, both girls have been sent to live with their reclusive Uncle Marten on his private island.
Jocelyn and Meline are both dealing with grief in their own way, while trying to adjust to their new surroundings. Uncle Marten seems scatterbrained and completely unable to properly interact with others, much less to offer support to the two traumatized girls.
To help, Uncle Marten hires Mrs. Mendelbaum to serve as the housekeeper and Mr. Humdinger as the butler. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mendelbaum is consumed with her own personal losses and Meline is sure that Humdinger's lurking behavior is evidence of untrustworthy actions.
Even the island they live on has a dark past. It was once used as the training grounds for pilots in a program that went terribly wrong. Now the island is littered with the wreckage of the planes that crashed during that program. And, Meline is sure that she and Jocelyn can build a plane of their own from the wreckage and escape from the island and their new lives.
THE CORPS OF THE BARE-BONED PLANE is a wonderfully written story about how differently each person reacts when faced with grief and change. It is told from the viewpoints of four of the main characters: Jocelyn, Meline, Uncle Marten, and Mrs. Mendelbaum. In addition to the main characters, author Polly Horvath has woven together a rich mixture of people and plots to provide an enjoyable reading experience.
Jocelyn and Meline are cousins with nothing more in common than a shared tragedy; the death of their parents. Now, both girls have been sent to live with their reclusive Uncle Marten on his private island.
Jocelyn and Meline are both dealing with grief in their own way, while trying to adjust to their new surroundings. Uncle Marten seems scatterbrained and completely unable to properly interact with others, much less to offer support to the two traumatized girls.
To help, Uncle Marten hires Mrs. Mendelbaum to serve as the housekeeper and Mr. Humdinger as the butler. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mendelbaum is consumed with her own personal losses and Meline is sure that Humdinger's lurking behavior is evidence of untrustworthy actions.
Even the island they live on has a dark past. It was once used as the training grounds for pilots in a program that went terribly wrong. Now the island is littered with the wreckage of the planes that crashed during that program. And, Meline is sure that she and Jocelyn can build a plane of their own from the wreckage and escape from the island and their new lives.
THE CORPS OF THE BARE-BONED PLANE is a wonderfully written story about how differently each person reacts when faced with grief and change. It is told from the viewpoints of four of the main characters: Jocelyn, Meline, Uncle Marten, and Mrs. Mendelbaum. In addition to the main characters, author Polly Horvath has woven together a rich mixture of people and plots to provide an enjoyable reading experience.
January 12, 2015
I'm kind of glad I didn't read this Horvath first, because it's not as well done as a lot of her other novels. I am an uber fan, so I gave it four stars--at this point because I am enjoying figuring out her writerly 'moves'. The problem was that she seemed to be writing this (and the cover illustration didn't help) to be a plot-driven story. But then it seemed like bait and switch into a character-driven story. The loose ends of the plot threads were all tied up in exposition in the last 35-page chapter. Boo.
It was her inimitable style that still kept me charmed all the way through--and her fearless handling of dark human themes. I love her voice, and that she doesn't shy away from it when she thinks the best direction for the story is not pretty. She has a knack for making me want to follow unlikable characters! This is deeply difficult to pull off, and I know she can do it. Yet The Vacation was a much better example of her drawing me into identifying with difficult people.
Over time, I've grown to think Polly Horvathdoes character development in ways that remind me of Donna Tartt or Michael Chabon. But she is unique in the children's & YA market!
It was her inimitable style that still kept me charmed all the way through--and her fearless handling of dark human themes. I love her voice, and that she doesn't shy away from it when she thinks the best direction for the story is not pretty. She has a knack for making me want to follow unlikable characters! This is deeply difficult to pull off, and I know she can do it. Yet The Vacation was a much better example of her drawing me into identifying with difficult people.
Over time, I've grown to think Polly Horvathdoes character development in ways that remind me of Donna Tartt or Michael Chabon. But she is unique in the children's & YA market!
June 30, 2014
Wow this is another book I didn't appreciate/get during my childhood. I enjoyed the black humour, the tragicomedy, and I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud a few times at Uncle Marten's antics or Meline/Jocelyn's comments.
However, the reason I didn't get it when I was younger is because
Anyway, I think there is a fair bit of humour in this book, but also a good dose of unexpected sadness. I thought this was sadder than The Series of Unfortunate Events, which I thought it was trying to emulate. Beautiful cover. But I didn't like some of the characters, which tried too hard to be quirky, and the multiple perspectives, because I simply wasn't interested in Mrs. Mendelbaum's yammering. Uncle Marten's POV grew on me after a bit, but the middle of the book dragged. Also, the
However, the reason I didn't get it when I was younger is because
Anyway, I think there is a fair bit of humour in this book, but also a good dose of unexpected sadness. I thought this was sadder than The Series of Unfortunate Events, which I thought it was trying to emulate. Beautiful cover. But I didn't like some of the characters, which tried too hard to be quirky, and the multiple perspectives, because I simply wasn't interested in Mrs. Mendelbaum's yammering. Uncle Marten's POV grew on me after a bit, but the middle of the book dragged. Also, the
August 30, 2013
Leave it to Polly Horvath to come up with a book for the YA crowd that is this strange. The characters are frigid though interesting. The plot, though it sometimes drags a bit, is somewhat compelling. There are some very funny parts that kind of take the reader by surprise (i.e. the delivery system and the butler drop). Even so, I am amazed that Horvath could even pull off a book this unusual. Then again, with good writing and superb characterization, I guess anything is possible.
My complaint about The Corps of the Bare-Boned Planes is its resolution. As readers, we clearly know that something is up with Uncle Marten and his island. We know that there are some strange connections between Humdinger and other characters, but we don't find out what is actually going on until the last ten pages. The characters are so odd, desperate, and disconnected through the rest of the entire book. I, for one, would have loved to see a gradual warming instead of a big reveal at the end.
Even so, kudos to Horvath for taking on and (pretty much) pulling off such a challenging premise.
My complaint about The Corps of the Bare-Boned Planes is its resolution. As readers, we clearly know that something is up with Uncle Marten and his island. We know that there are some strange connections between Humdinger and other characters, but we don't find out what is actually going on until the last ten pages. The characters are so odd, desperate, and disconnected through the rest of the entire book. I, for one, would have loved to see a gradual warming instead of a big reveal at the end.
Even so, kudos to Horvath for taking on and (pretty much) pulling off such a challenging premise.
August 20, 2008
I am not sure what to say about this book except that I forced myself to finish it.
Yes, Polly Horvath, yet again, paints a cast of colorful characters. She puts the young and the old toegther in a big house. Everyone is self-involved and we are served chapters of navel gazing characters who go on and on about unconnected uninteresting issues.
Then, in the end, when we could completely care less, she shwos us how this group is connected in a few more uninteresting chapters that wrap it all up in a big fat Christmas bow.
I don't think authors should get a 'free pass' after winning the National Book Award. The editor of this book should be ashamed for slacking on the job.
Either that or I am a clueless non-literary reader who cannot see or appreciate true literature when she reads it.
*sigh*
Yes, Polly Horvath, yet again, paints a cast of colorful characters. She puts the young and the old toegther in a big house. Everyone is self-involved and we are served chapters of navel gazing characters who go on and on about unconnected uninteresting issues.
Then, in the end, when we could completely care less, she shwos us how this group is connected in a few more uninteresting chapters that wrap it all up in a big fat Christmas bow.
I don't think authors should get a 'free pass' after winning the National Book Award. The editor of this book should be ashamed for slacking on the job.
Either that or I am a clueless non-literary reader who cannot see or appreciate true literature when she reads it.
*sigh*
January 20, 2013
This was an okay book, it was good but not the great. The genera of this book is realistic fiction. It was about two cousins named Meline and Jocelyn, which both of their parents died in an accident. They both end up living with their uncle named Marten in an island. As time passes by both of the cousins discover that their was a history behind this island which was about a crazy commander who made eleven piolets die by training to fly a airplane without instruments. Meline, Jocelyn, and uncle Marten went to visit the place with wreked planes, which Meline wanted to rebuild one again and which they successfully made and also found out that the world once ended before. So overall I didn't like this book very much because it didn't have a lot of details and also since it was suppose to be an adventourous and mysterious book, I didn't have the feeling it was.
December 22, 2009
I was forced to read this book because I was a member of White Pine 2009. This book is absolutly boring. The story starts at the END of the book. Just read the first three character sections, read the christmas scene and read the last three character sections. DON"T BOTHER READING THE WHOLE THING! I had to force myself to read this. It was terrible. Its just the boring lives of an intellectual (WHO SUFFERS FROM BIBLIOMANIA AND OCD ABOUT HIS BOOKS), a stuck up British girl, a tomboy,a jewish cook and cleaning lady, a butler, a cat and a dog. Not worth reading, I could summerize it for you in like 2 mins if you want.
November 12, 2008
I didn't finish this, largely because I was reading for the purpose of compiling a booklist and this didn't turn out to fit well.
Even if I were reading this just for pleasure I'm not sure I would have finished -- her characters are, as always, unbeatable. Horvath is great at getting in the minds of her children and teen characters. That said, the plot plodded along and gave the reader no incentive to continue. Although I felt I knew the characters, I wasn't drawn to them and I didn't care about them enough to trudge on.
Even if I were reading this just for pleasure I'm not sure I would have finished -- her characters are, as always, unbeatable. Horvath is great at getting in the minds of her children and teen characters. That said, the plot plodded along and gave the reader no incentive to continue. Although I felt I knew the characters, I wasn't drawn to them and I didn't care about them enough to trudge on.
May 11, 2011
This character-driven book probably isn't for someone who wants much of a plot in their fiction. That said, the characters are all so well-written, eccentric, and fun to read that I didn't really mind the lack of real story. My only real problem with this book was the ending - it felt like she decided to just wrap up all the different characters' stories in five pages or less and be done with it. Kind of like one of those movie montages where they tell you where the characters are in ten years, only Horvath tells you each mysterious character's real past.
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June 26, 2015I enjoyed The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane and have already recommended it to someone. Other reviews that say the ending felt rushed -- I can agree with that, but I disagree that some felt like it didn't fit the rest of the book. The story of loss, of family, of companionship, and grief are not easy subjects to tackle, even though they are universal feelings, we each deal with it individually, as these characters do.
April 1, 2009
Really good. Like the Canning Season in some ways - girl goes to live with eccentric relatives. A little too dark for Zoe to read just yet. Too much mention of decapitation (which is in the Canning Season, too, actually). After her parents die, she is shipped to her rich uncle's island along with her cousin, whose parents died in the same accident. They aren't very good at communicating. Lots of silent dinners.
April 28, 2012
While the book didn't exactly grab my attention at first, it was really well written. The characterization was phenomenal. Polly Horvath did a great job switching through different people's views, showing how they felt and how they misunderstood eachother, and you really got to sympathize with some of them. At the same time, though, she refrained from showing the point of view of the most elusive character, which helped add to the mystery
October 15, 2013
Had to read it for my English class as a White Pine book in grade 9. It had bits of interesting and tragic points. It was a pick-up-once-and never-again-book liked it enough to finish it but won`t re-read it again. What i learned from the book? Sharing your griefs and sorrows with someone can help you heal and feel connected with each other. The more you share, the more comfortable you get around each other. The ending was quite weird :/
April 26, 2008
I loved it. It was truley adicting after i started to get into it. i hardly got any sleep over the days I was reading it because i would stay up all night reading it. It dragged you in, made you want to know how it would end. It ended a bit... no a lot differently then i was expecting. I was not dissapointed just suprised.
May 14, 2010
I had avoided this book because I didn't like the cover. I found most of it quite interesting but I kept wondering how she was going to resolve it. She didn't. It felt like she got sick of it, wrapped it up real fast and turned it in so she could get on with something more interesting. I used to do that in school
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews