About the Book

Linnet waited with her eyes closed for the door to open and her mother to peek in. Waited for her to touch Linnet's shoulder blades lightly...Linnet knew that touch in her bones, as if it had happened every night of her life. An imprint, a memory of the skin itself.

So begins this startling first novel about an eleven-year-old girl who suddenly begins to grow wings -- wings with soft auburn feathers, which only at first can be hidden with long hair and loose clothes. Funny, sad, and hopeful, this remarkable story captures a girl's shock at feeling alone in life, as it follows her journey to answer a most important question: how can a girl with wings ever fit into the world?

Book Synopsis

"Linnet waited with her eyes closed for the door to open and her mother to peek in. Waited for her to touch Linnet's shoulder blades lightly...Linnet knew that touch in her bones, as if it had happened every night of her life. An imprint, a memory of the skin itself."

So begins this startling first novel about an eleven-year-old girl who suddenly begins to grow wings -- wings with soft auburn feathers, which only at first can be hidden with long hair and loose clothes. Funny, sad, and hopeful, this remarkable story captures a girl's shock at feeling alone in life, as it follows her journey to answer a most important question: how can a girl with wings ever fit into the world?

Review Quotes

"Youngsters will discover a fast-paced and suspenseful fantasy." --School Library Journal (10/00) School Library Journal

About the Author

I grew up as an odd kid in the mountains of Montana, writes Laurel Winter. I didn't have wings, but I was klutzy and bookwormish and didn't always fit in. I attended a one-room country school for eight grades. Today Laurel writes poems and short stories, and she loves to paint and draw and sculpt. She says this novel began as a short story, but its plot surprised her. Together with her husband and twin sons, she lives in Rochester, Minnesota. GROWING WINGS is her first novel.