Fifteen year old Anna is flying back to England for school after spending the summer with her family in Bahrain. Her plane is hijacked by Palestinian guerrillas and forced to land in the Jordanian desert. Demands are made to the British government and if these demands are not met, the guerrillas are planning on blowing the plane up with all the passengers on board. Thus begins Girl on a Plane by Miriam Moss, a YA story that was tense and suspenseful yet also felt very real.

Anna has to endure during four days of watching the clock count down, living through extreme desert conditions while on starvation rations and very little water. With a growing sense of desperation, she wonders if she will ever see her family again.

At the end of the book I discovered that this scenario actually happened to the author when she was fifteen. Girl on a Plane is about ordinary people living through extraordinary circumstances and I for one, was totally engrossed by this story. ( )

This was a book that was hard to put down. I remember the hijackings of the 1970s and can never forget the devastation of 9/11. This book may be a work of fiction but the author lived out this event. In doing so, she is able to vividly portray the emotions, fears, and mind jarring realities that a person living through a situation like this experiences.

This book will be added to my high school library shelves soon. ( )

I hate to think of the 1970s as historical fiction, but it is. This is a story of a hijacked plane in 1970 and the 15-year-0ld main character is on it. The descriptions are perfect and the action is intense. I really enjoyed this book. ( )

Anna’s father works for the Army, and has been stationed all over the world. Since she had to move all the time, schoolwork and making friends became challenging. So, 4 years ago, she began going to boarding school in England. That fateful September day in 1970 started out like any other trip to school. Her parents drove her to the airport, she kissed them and her little brothers goodbye, and boarded the plane thinking about how much she would be missing their stay in Bahrain.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take longer before her plane was hijacked by the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). Seeking public support for their cause, they had been regularly hijacking planes, but Anna never thought her plane would be on their list. “Girl on a plane” is Anna’s story of the four harrowing days spent with the hijackers, without much food or water, not knowing if she and the other passengers would get blown up with the plane in the middle of the desert.

“Girl on a Plane” is a fictional story, based on a real life hijacking experienced by the author when she was 15 years old. During the Postscript and Q & A, readers learn of many similarities between Anna’s story and Miriam’s real life story.

I never knew there were so many hijackings in 1970, which made me very upset that the United States never thought to secure their own planes from hijackers. If they had done so back in 1970, 9/11 would never have happened. Yes these hijackings took place outside of the U.S. while we were busy in Vietnam, but one would think that we would’ve thought about securing our planes. Hindsight is 20/20, but knowing what I now know about these hijackings doesn’t make our inaction any easier to stomach.

Book review link: https://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/girl-on-a-plane-miriam-moss/ ( )

While on a flight to London, Miriam Moss’s plane is hijacked by the PLF. The pilot is forced to fly the plan into the desert, where terrorists place bombs around the plane. The hijackers demand that one of their comrades is released from prison or else the plane and everyone inside will be blown up. This was a fascinating book. I just couldn’t put it down. I would love to read more from this author! ( )