Interview by Spencer Miller
What would you do if you found out that the air in your province was unsafe to breathe? In Air Heist, 12-year-old siblings Sage and Crew and their classmates at the prestigious Greenhouse Academy have six months to find out why the air in Alberta is turning poisonous. As they search for answers, they realize the Academy may be hiding even more mysteries than they first imagined.
This brand new middle grade adventure blends elements of science fiction and fantasy to explore ideas about friendship, family, and caring for the environment. From Métis writer Cheryl Isbister, Air Heist is the first youth chapter book published by Medicine Wheel Publishing.
I had the chance to ask Cheryl about writing Air Heist and how young people can deepen their connection with the land.
In addition to being a writer, you are a teacher and vice-principal. How did your experience as an educator help you write Air Heist?Early in my career, I worked at a private boarding school called Athol Murray College of Notre Dame. I was a dorm parent and a teacher. Parts of Greenhouse Academy were inspired by my experiences there. Like, the cafeteria was a place to eat, to see everyone, and to hold assemblies. The dorms had friendly rivalries. The adults were teachers, but also mentors, coaches, and parents to the students. It could be like a big family.
Some kids were enrolled at Notre Dame because it was located in a small town far from everywhere, and their parents wanted to give them a chance at better life choices. Some students arrived as angry, proud, sneering, boastful teenagers. I recreated some of these less likable characteristics in my villains.
The heroes in Air Heist are a compilation of the hundreds of good students I’ve met during my teaching career, mixed with traits of my own three children. Former students of mine may read Air Heist and see themselves in the characters!
Air Heist follows Sage and Crew, 12-year-old siblings with extraordinary abilities and an unknown past. What do you love most about these characters?
Sage and Crew share an unusual past, being raised at a boarding school and not knowing their parents. They have a deep affection for each other. The school is their home, and the forest, mountains, caves, and waterfalls are their backyard. I imagine them like Mary, Colin, and Dickon in The Secret Garden, helping each other grow up, roaming the forest, and hanging out in their secret cave.
One of the first lessons they learn is “there are many reasons not to trust the people in charge”, and that sets the stage for their year. The air is being poisoned. They’ve been told in no uncertain terms to leave the problems to the real scientists. They won’t, of course. I love that they break rules! I love that they take chances, even knowing the risk of expulsion and foster care. They’re courageous even when the stakes are high.
Sage and Crew attend Greenhouse Academy, a mysterious school nestled somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. How would you describe Greenhouse Academy, and what makes this school so fantastic?I wanted Greenhouse Academy to mix the joy of living on the land with the comfort of living in buildings. The classrooms and dorms are built of rock, so they blend into the surrounding landscape. The walls and roofs are sloped in a seemingly random way that copies nature. Grass and wildflowers grow in the cracks of the walls and roofs. There are flower gardens in front of each dorm, bursting with the flower each dorm is named for. A huge vegetable garden, tended by staff and students, provides food for the school.
Immediately behind the dorms lies the immensity of the evergreen forest. For Sage and Crew, the forest is part of the school and their home. There’s the pond, the trails, and their secret cave behind the whistling waterfall. Justine’s art studio, where Sage takes Independent Study, is tucked away in a cozy pocket of wilderness. As Sage discovers her wolfness, the whole of the forest becomes home to her, and her connection to the wolves and animals deepens.
Inside the buildings, no expense was spared to provide the students with every technology they could possibly need to explore their giftedness. There are labs where Crew works on inventions, and fields where the athletically gifted can play sports. It’s also common knowledge that there’s a hidden part of the school underneath the mountain where scientists conduct research, and where kids are never allowed to go. Secret labs? That’s just an invitation for stealthy midnight exploring!
Woven into the thrills and mysteries of Air Heist is a call to readers to care for the environment. How can adults/educators encourage young people to grow a connection with the land they live on?
Plant seeds that grow into food. Peas and lettuce will grow effortlessly in a pot in a window. A strawberry plant will bear juicy, sweet strawberries in a container on your front porch. If you’re lucky enough to have a patch of earth, I suggest carrots and potatoes. Growing food is like a magic trick. Harvesting it is like finding hidden treasure. It’s so easy, even a small child can do it.
Walk with children in whatever nature you have around you. Most people don’t know the names of the plants and trees—download the iNaturalist app and find out who your plants and trees are. It’s one thing to go for a walk in a beautiful park or forest grove near your home. It’s something different entirely to go for a walk and say hello to the garry oak by the big rock, and the Oregon grape bushes alongside the path. They become your friends. One day, you’re walking in the forest, and the Oregon grapes are showing off their pretty yellow flowers. A month later, they’re offering you their berries to make into jam. This is what it is to be in relationship with the land. When I’m near my favourite plants, I want to introduce them to other people I’m with. I want to take care of them by pulling out weeds and invasives that threaten them. I want to be able to come back tomorrow and see them again.I believe this is the way forward in a world threatened by climate change. We need to know and love the land around us so strongly that we can never allow it to be harmed.
Air Heist is your debut book. Let’s take a moment to celebrate! How does it feel to see your book out in the world, and what do you hope readers take away from Sage and Crew’s adventure?
I have a deep sense of gratitude to my publisher, Medicine Wheel Publishing, for believing in Air Heist. I’m living a dream that was too beautiful and far-fetched to ever come true—writing and publishing a book. But it has! So I’m enjoying every minute of it.
I want my readers to try to solve the dual mysteries of “who is poisoning the air and why?” and “who are Sage and Crew’s parents and where are they?” I want them to have that “Oooooooooooooh” and “no way!” feeling at the reveal. Only then should they look at their alarm clock, realize it’s way past bedtime, and fall into a satisfied sleep.
Will Sage and Crew be back for another adventure?
They’ll be back! In Book 2, Tree Heist, they need to stop the bad guys before they cut down the forests and commit environmental genocide in the name of “good forest and wildfire management.”
Greenhouse students discover shocking (and not always human-like) characteristics that their genetic changes are bringing out in them. On top of that, there’s a new inhabitant in their forest: a rougaroo! A vicious, wolf-like beast of Métis legend is stalking the forest. Will Sage and Crew find a way to save themselves and their forest before it is too late?