The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor [Paperback]

Jon Jeffers is the loneliest nine-year-old on earth. It's 1935, and he's stuck on a tiny rocky island off the coast of San Francisco with his mother and his lighthouse-keeper father. So when the ghost of an ancient magician appears and offers to teach him to fly, Jon seizes the chance for adventure. But then he flies into serious trouble. . . .

From the acclaimed author ofThe Cayand its prequel-sequel,Timothy of the Cay, here is a sweet, funny, and outrageous tale of a boy who gets his dearest wish—and then wishes he hadn't.

[A] compelling fantasy. --Parenting

ONE

A MERE FIFTY-TWO POUNDS, FOUR-FEET-two-inches tall, brown eyed and brown haired, nine-year-old Jonathan Jeffers thought he was the loneliest boy on Earth.

He lived with his father, James, and his mother, Mabel, in a red-painted cottage on Clementine Rock, near Three Fathom Shoal and Persiphone Reef, next to an old white-painted brick lighthouse, nineteen miles off the coast of California.

He had a big brown-and-black dog named Smacks, a dog of many breeds. They were constant companions, as Jon desperately needed a friend. Smacks served him as best he could just by being there.

All night and on foggy days, the strong beam of the lighthouse went around and around, warning ships to stay away from the rock, the shoal, and the reef. The light was powered by a big generator, and Jon's father, a boatswain mate first class in the United States Coast Guard-or bosun-was the keeper. On a clear night, the light could be seen from passing ships twenty-two miles away.

When the heavy, cold mists rolled in toward San Francisco, which was to the north of Clementine, the hoarse foghorn also bellowed. Hour after hour. Sometimes day after day. AHHHHHH-RURH-RRRR-AAAA- AAAATS.

It sounded like Ah, rats to Jon, who had a strong oval face and an imagination as broad as the sweep of the light.

He hated thel#+