Airborn

Airborn
Kenneth Oppel
Fiction Op52a
An original and imaginative Victorian-era fantasy. Matt, 15, only feels alive when he's aloft working as a cabin boy aboard the Aurora,a luxury airship that is part dirigible, part passenger cruise ship. When wealthy Kate and her chaperone come aboard, Matt soon discovers that she is determined to prove her grandfather's claims that he saw strange creatures flying in the sky in that area the year before. The man's diary describes them as huge, furry beasts with batlike wings and sharp claws.
This rousing adventure has something for everyone: appealing and enterprising characters, nasty villains, and a little romance. (School Library Journal)