Product Description

Ian’s best friend, Stolly, is up on cloud nine. He’s in the hospital, unconscious, and hooked up to machines. The question Ian is trying to answer is: How did Stolly end up there?

In a way, Stolly’s always been on cloud nine, living life by his own rules and making those rules up as he goes along. His parents’ careers have them constantly rushing around, so Ian’s family has all but adopted Stolly. That’s why it’s up to Ian to figure out what happened to his best friend. But once the pieces start coming together, the answer doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1432430 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-29
• Released on: 2003-04-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
Anne Fine's Up On Cloud Nine is possibly one of the best books you will ever read. Character-led, beautifully crafted, uplifting and life-affirming, Fine's masterpiece tells the story of a deep friendship between two boys, Stolly and Ian. The pair are introduced to the reader at the point where the accident-prone Stolly is lying unconscious in a hospital bed having survived a rather spectacular plummet to the ground from a very high window.

As the pair are caught in the sterile time-warp of the hospital, waiting for the arrival of their respective parents, Ian contemplates Stolly's life: a Walter Mitty character who insists he is not a liar but a fantasist, who unflinchingly speaks as he finds and is blessed with a mind and imagination so receptive to experience that occasionally his words and actions are shocking to those around him.

As the waiting continues Ian, circled by a social worker who is concerned at the alarming regularity of Stolly's hospital visits, pieces together the good, the funny, the bad and the downright ugly, compiling a comprehensive biography that ultimately leads him to believe that his remarkable friend's accident may not have been an accident at all.

Anne Fine is certainly on form in this extraordinary, unforgettable novel--the lady rarely disappoints, with sure-fire winners such as Goggle Eyes, Flour Babies and Madame Doubtfire enticing new generations of readers into her world. But with Up On Cloud Nine she really hits the spot with a sublime, involving novel that is a deceptively quick and simple read, yet contains all the hallmarks of a classic work of fiction. It may sound overdramatic, but everyone--and that includes adults--should read this to remind themselves that a really good book can lift the spirits and leave you with seriously rosy glow. Age 9 and over. Susan Harrison

From Publishers Weekly
Fine (The Tulip Touch) mixes equal measures of humor and poignancy into this novel about a friendship between two very different yet inseparable boys. The tale opens as narrator Ian sits at the hospital bedside of the unconscious Stol (short for Stuart Oliver), who broke numerous bones and sustained a concussion when he fell out of a window. "He looks so dead for someone who has always been so alive, spilling with words and ideas," notes Ian. "If he went now, all his past stuff would shrivel, even in our minds." So Ian begins jotting a "Stol biography." The narrative shifts smoothly between past and present as it pieces together anecdotes of the boys' shared time, and a complex picture of a highly imaginative, somewhat desperate and thoroughly engaging Stol starts to emerge. As Ian describes how often his friend stays with him, sometimes for days at a stretch while Stol's parents obsess over their work, readers get their first clues about the darker side to Stol's life. Other indications come through in what Stol's teachers call a healthy case of "mythomania"; it's "like sitting around a telly that ran a different soap opera every day. He had so many lives," Ian reports. Ian's efforts to protect his friend culminate in a scene that is at once comical and moving. If the adults here come off as a bit pat, the fully rounded boys at the novel's center more than make up for them. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Fine offers readers another memorable character in Stol, short for Stuart Oliver. With both of his parents occupied with their careers, his friend Ian and Ian's parents have taken the boy into their hearts and home. The opening scene takes place in a hospital where Stol lies in a coma after falling, or possibly jumping, from a third-story window. Ian watches his buddy and surveys his memory for clues as to how the incident could have happened, thinking and writing about their times together. Perfectly happy one minute and desperately uncertain that life is worth continuing the next, Stol is a fascinating explosion of abilities and worldviews. His philosophical viewpoint and way of life are the antithesis of Ian's solid practicality, and he expresses feelings that others are afraid to say. Needing one another, the boys share a friendship that is revealed on every page right to the end. All of Fine's characters leap to life, even Stol's absent and self-centered mother. The effectiveness and morality of Ian's interference with the authorities in convincing them that Stol's act was not a suicide attempt are left open and are sure to spark discussion opportunities for readers. Completely absorbing, this book is a gift to those who know and love others who are different.
Carol A. Edwards, Sonoma County Library, Santa Rosa, CA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.