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 His parents got divorced in 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 His website is

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 eighty- year-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: 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 eighty- year-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!