Airborn

Kate compares lost opportunity due to sexism with lost opportunity due to poverty. Bruce, who also grew up rich, agrees with her. Matt is not as certain. Does the novel suggest that one of these viewpoints is more correct? How are the class barriers Matt faces different from the gender barriers Kate faces?

Matt loves the adventure stories his father told of his travels, but often privately disparages Kate for being too fanciful and treating reality like a story. What does the novel suggest is the role of storytelling in navigating the world? What are the limits of that role?

What does Matt’s choice to attend the Academy say about the novel’s framing of schooling against lived experience? About the nature and value of knowledge or skill?

Does the Aurora function more like a character in the novel or like a setting? Use evidence from the text to support your claim.

How does the presence of airships, which can go anywhere, make Airborn (and other steampunk-style novels) more “global” than adventure novels that take place on ships or land-based travel? To make your argument, cite another adventure novel you have read. What is the effect of this greater “globalism”?

At the end of the novel, Matt thinks he and Kate have become far more “grown up.” What are the positive and negative implications of growing up? What does the novel suggest is lost with maturity?

Explore descriptions of the characters’ clothing, the physicality of the Aurora, or the presence of a non-airship technology to discuss how Oppel’s novel develops its distinct steampunk aesthetic.

Explore one of the tropes presented in Oppel’s minor characters (e.g., the elder brother figure in Baz; the “mad” chef in Vlad; the wise captain in Walken; the charismatic villain in Szpirglas) and discuss what Matt’s reactions to these characters tell you about him as a protagonist.