The Girl Who Could Fly

The Girl Who Could Fly is a 2008 children’s fantasy novel by Victoria Forester. The plot is about a country girl born with the ability to fly. Though her parents try to hide her abilities from the world, her powers are revealed and she’s sent away to a special school for other magically gifted children—but the school might not have her best interests at heart. Forester is the writer and director of several films, including Cry of the White Wolf and Teen Sorcery. She originally wrote The Girl Who Could Fly as a screenplay, but chose to develop the story as a novel as well.

Piper McCloud is a homeschooled farm girl with a secret: she’s been able to fly ever since she was a baby. When her parents discovered her ability, they decided to keep it a secret from the rest of Low County. Her mother, Betty, warned her not to use her power, but Piper couldn’t understand why: she needed to fly like she needed to breathe. So ever since, she’s been practicing her flying in secret.

One day, Betty announces she’ll be taking Piper to a Fourth of July picnic. Piper is excited, hoping it’ll be a chance for her to make friends her own age. But there are already rumors spreading around Piper. Millie Mae Miller, the town gossip, is convinced Piper is crazy. Things get worse when Piper tries to make friends with Millie’s daughter, Sallie Sue. The two girls initially bond, but Piper makes the mistake of telling Sallie that she saw Millie kicking their dog a few days ago. Piper saw it happen when she was flying, and Sallie Sue thinks Piper is somehow stalking her family, seeing past their fence.



Worse, at the Fourth of July ballgame, Piper has trouble hitting the ball. Piper is so frustrated that she flies into the air to catch the ball. The whole town is stunned. They believe her powers are evil.

The next morning, reporters swarm her house, trying to report on “The Girl Who Could Fly.” She’s also attracted the attention of Dr. Letitia Hellion, who works at a secret government-run school for children of special abilities, I.N.S.A.N.E., or Institute of Normalcy, Stability, And NonExceptionality. Dr. Hellion wants to bring Piper there, on the condition that she agrees not to fly anymore: the point of the institute is to teach these children to integrate with the rest of society. Her father, Joe, gives her a hand-carved bird as a parting gift.

Dr. Hellion tells Piper that I.N.S.A.N.E. hosts children, animals, and plants that possess extraordinary powers, and she witnesses a rose that can growl as she descends down to the Thirteenth Level, where the children live.



During Piper’s first lunch at the institute, her glass keeps sliding on the table. She realizes a classmate named Lily is telekinetic, and is playing a prank with the glass. Piper manages to get Lily to spill her own glass on herself, and all the other students admire her for that. All except a boy named Conrad, who is rude to her.

Later, Conrad bullies a boy named Jasper, who has forgotten what his special ability used to be, and later tricks Piper into flying. She is nearly expelled for using her powers. Piper does make friends with the other children and learns their abilities. Conrad himself is genius-level intelligent. Smitty has x-ray vision, and Daisy is astonishingly strong. One day at lunch, Piper notices Bella is making rainbows appear, but she cries as she conjures them. Conrad takes Bella to the nurse.

Later, Bella is about to graduate from I.N.S.A.N.E. Piper is ready to attend the ceremony with everyone else when Conrad abruptly throws the hand-carved bird from Piper’s father into the trash. Furious, Piper attacks him, and the two students are sent to Dr. Hellion’s office. On the way, Piper breaks free, determine to retrieve her father’s bird from the incinerator. But she is distracted when she encounters the growling rose from before. A machine is spraying a black, burning substance on the rose. She also sees a turtle slowly being crushed by a heavy weight. Piper feels sorry for both plant and animal and decides to help. She frees the turtle and it starts bouncing around the room. She tries to catch it, but it escapes through a window. Piper does catch a small black cricket trapped in glue. Piper frees it and names it Sebastian.



Meanwhile, the scientists of I.N.S.A.N.E. discover the cricket is missing, and security footage shows Piper freed it. Dr. Hellion, assuming Piper is in her office, heads there immediately. Piper flies to Dr. Hellion’s office to find a phone, hoping to call her parents for help. Conrad, already there, hangs up for her and shows her the phone is bugged. Then, he gives her the wooden bird, explaining that he had made a copy of it and thrown that in the trash earlier. When Dr. Hellion arrives, Conrad covers for Piper, concocting a story to get her out of trouble.

Later, Conrad tells Piper the truth about the institute: the food they’re fed is tailored to each student to deactivate their abilities. They “graduate” only when they’ve lost their powers completely. He’s been rude to her this whole time in an effort to provoke her into using her abilities. He wants her to escape with him, but she won’t go without the rest of the students. They attempt an escape, but Dr. Hellion catches them. She puts Piper in a torture device called a M.O.L.D. The cricket, Sebastian, begins to sing to her, but Dr. Hellion throws a shoe at him and kills him. Overcome with pain and despair, she retreats deep within her mind.

Weeks later, Piper is back with the other children—but her legs are broken, she can’t fly, and she has forgotten who she is. Conrad suggests they all try to escape without her, but Jasper refuses. He also remembers his talent: it’s healing. He repairs Piper’s broken legs and mind.



The children lead a revolt and escape the institute only to find Dr. Hellion waiting outside with a stun baton. Piper fights her, and during the fight Dr. Hellion reveals her own ability to fly. Mid-flight, Dr. Hellion has a flashback to her childhood. She was flying with her little sister, Sarah, who accidentally fell from a cliff and died. Remembering this, Dr. Hellion suddenly stops flying and falls to her death, deliberately killing herself.

Months later, Piper is back home, and Conrad joins her. His own high-status family has rejected him. This time, the annual Fourth of July picnic is populated by Piper’s friends from the institute, and they use their abilities to win the ballgame. Later, Piper tells Conrad that an invisible student from the institute, J., told her that none of them were safe yet, and that there was a secret place where they could all belong.

The Girl Who Could Fly spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It won the Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, the Black-Eyed Susan Award, and more. Forester wrote a sequel, The Boy Who Knew Everything, in 2015.