How I Learned to Fly
| File:How I Learned to Fly.jpg | |
| Author | R. L. Stine |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tim Jacobus |
| Language | English |
| Series | Goosebumps |
| Genre | Horror fiction, Children's literature |
| Publisher | Scholastic |
Publication date | February 1997 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 125 |
| ISBN | 0-590-56889-2 |
| OCLC | 36220884 |
| LC Class | CPB Box no. 2023 vol. 19 |
| Preceded by | Beware, The Snowman |
| Followed by | Chicken Chicken |
How I Learned to Fly is the 52nd book in the Goosebumps series, written by R. L. Stine.
Plot
Jack Johnson can't win anything in life. He is constantly in competition with Wilson, a better-looking, smarter, more athletic, better-at-everything-all-the-time guy who even attracts the attention of Mia, a girl Jack has a crush on. Jack draws Mia a superhero, Wilson draws her a quintet of superheroes and calls them "Mia's Defenders." Jack gets a new 21-Speed bike to impress Mia, but Wilson has just received a new mountain bike. The three of them race home, and, naturally, Wilson wins.
Mia invites the two to her birthday party. Wilson promises a big surprise for Mia from his dog. Jack doesn't really want to go, as he knows he will just be one-upped by Wilson. Jack is greeted warmly by Mia's stepmother upon arriving, until she is told that he's not the Wilson they've all been expecting. When Wilson does show up to the party, he upstages Jack by creating a balloon man for Mia. Then as Mia sets out the Twister mat, Wilson once again impresses everyone by teaching his dog, Terminator, how to spin the color wheel. The last straw for Jack comes when Wilson presents Mia with a better birthday gift than Jack's Purple Rose album. Jack screams in frustration and leaves the party, despite Mia urging him to return.
Jack hides out in an abandoned beach house, where Jack falls through the rotten wooden floor into the basement. As Jack struggles to get up, he finds an old book called Flying Lessons. Before he can read it, a band of rats go after him. Jack shoos and steps over the rats as he heads for a staircase leading upstairs. With the book still in hand, Jack takes it home with him and reads it. The book turns out to be a manual that teaches humans how to fly through a series of rigorous stretches and a recipe for a doughy mixture. Jack decides to use this as his chance to finally upstage Wilson and impress Mia. As Jack is mixing the dough needed for flight, Jack's dog, Morty, ingests the concoction and ends up floating in the air and out of the house. Jack panics, ingests the rest of the dough himself, and flies up into the sky to rescue his dog (and tests out his new ability). Jack soon lands in his backyard, overjoyed that he finally can do something that Wilson can't. After many rained out days and false starts, Jack finally meets with Wilson and Mia to show off his newfound ability.
Jack flies up into the air above Mia, looking down at how stunned Mia is. Jack's joy is short-lived, however, as Wilson is floating next to him. Wilson reveals that he knows how to fly too, thanks to sneaking into Jack's garage and taking the Flying Lessons book. To add insult to injury, Jack falls down while Wilson makes a smooth landing. Mia is too shocked to say or do anything. Wilson leaves to go to tennis practice. Finally over the shock of what she had just witnessed, Mia begs Jack to teach her how to fly. However, when he makes his way back home with Mia in tow, Jack is unable to find the book. He suddenly remembers that his mom was doing spring cleaning and more than likely threw the book in the trash. Mia doesn't mind not being able to fly, but warns Jack not to abuse his new powers. Jack scoffs at Mia's warning, chalking it up to Mia's disappointment and jealousy over not being able to fly.
A few days later, Wilson tells Jack that he's promised the gym teacher a "very special race." The student body is gathered outside the gym to see it. Mia begs Jack not to go through with it, but Jack dismisses her warning once again. Jack and Wilson take to the sky, with Wilson ruining Jack's chance at a victory. This doesn't seem to matter to the student body, as everyone is stunned over seeing two humans flying. Word about the race spreads across the country. Jack and Wilson become the center of America's attention in everything, from the media wanting to know all about them to Army scientists who want to experiment on them. Even with their newfound powers and fame, Wilson proves to be better than Jack. Wilson has his own TV show, Wonder Wilson and His Amazing Rescues, while Jack is reduced to doing car dealership commercials. Despite their celebrity, neither Jack nor Wilson have spent any time with Mia, which crushes Jack more than it does Wilson.
Jack's father -- a talent agent who got his son the car dealership commercial gig -- announces that he's signed his son up for a big race with Wilson where the winner will receive a million dollars. On the day of the big race, Wilson and Jack prepare to fly off into the sky. As Wilson soars into the sky, Jack tumbles off the platform in front of the shocked audience. Jack concludes that he lost his ability to fly, and, with that, his fame. In a twist ending, it's revealed that Jack only pretended to lose his ability to fly so he can get out of being famous and get the one thing that truly matters to him: Mia. Meanwhile, Wilson still has his ability to fly, but is also saddled with the heavier burden of being the center of everyone's attention and has no life outside of his celebrity.
Tagline
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a ... kid?
Book Description
He's Got His Head In the Clouds. For Real...
Wilson Schlame loves to make Jack Johnson feel like a total loser. And Jack's had it. That's how he ended up down at the beach. In a creepy, old abandoned house. In the dark. Trying to hide from Wilson. But everything is about to change. Because Jack just dug up the coolest book. It's called Flying Lessons. It tells how humans can learn to fly. Poor jack. He wanted to get back at Wilson. But now that Jack's learned how to fly, things down on earth are getting really scary...
Trivia
- "How I Learned to Fly" is notable for being one of the only books in the Goosebumps series that isn't centered on children encountering supernatural beings (monsters, ghosts, vampires, aliens) or elements of the macabre (witchcraft, voodoo, etc), though the mixture used to give humans flight is said to be magical. Instead, the book's horrors are more realistic and based on human nature - unrequited love (Jack's crush on Mia), the overwhelming need to succeed (Jack's rivalry with Wilson), the unglamorous side of being a celebrity (Jack and Wilson being hounded by obsessive fans and government scientists), and how the talented are often exploited (Jack's agent father making his son a mascot for a car dealership).