Airborn is an amazing fantasy!

I recently read an amazing fantasy book called Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. He is such an amazing writer, and this book was a Printz Honor book given to the best young adult books of the year. The story is set in the past (think Victorian era when girls still wear long dresses all the time and need chaperones to spent time with guys they like) but in an alternate reality when zeppelins (also known as blimps, like the Hindenberg) are a major mode of transportation. The main character is a boy named Matt who works as a cabin boy on the passenger ship Aurora, which he dreams of captaining one day. There are a lot of overtones of Treasure Island on this story: of course there's sailing the ship, there are pirates, there's an island. However, Airborn also has a spunky girl, Kate, so there's a bit of light romance, too. Kate is bent on finding some fantastic winged creatures her grandfather claimed to have seen and proving their existence to the scientific community. Lots of adventure and suspense in this, and the writing is superb. There is also a sequel. You can read the beginning of Airborn online at Google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=whh8tqQIcGEC&lpg=PP1&dq=airborn%20oppel&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false.