Chapter 1: Ship's Eyes Summary

"Airborn" by Kenneth Oppel is a story of possibilities. This work of fiction portrays what the world might have been like had the aircraft as we know it not been invented. Instead, airships of the day use a fuel called hydrium and resemble hot air balloons more closely than they do airplanes as we know them. The story centers around a cabin boy named Matt Cruse who works aboard the airship Aurora just as his father before him had. When his father is killed in a freak accident, Matt is given a job by the captain of the ship, enabling him to continue to support his mother and two sisters.

The sailing is smooth two nights out of Sydney. At first, Matt almost misses the hot air balloon in the sky above them, noticing it only because it blots...