Cardboard Wings

Some dreams are too stubborn to stay on the ground.

Zelven Holt isn't trying to become famous.

He just wants to understand why nothing can fly forever.

While everyone else in the small town of Larkson, Oklahoma, is planning a future that looks just like their parents', Zelven spends his days building paper airplanes, cardboard wings, and impossible inventions inside an old barn.

Most people call them failures.

He calls them data.

Only two people never laugh.

Khai-the friend who refuses to let him quit.

Rishi-the brilliant coder who somehow turns every disaster into another experiment.

Together, the three of them chase questions no one else thinks are worth asking.

Until one experiment changes everything.

What begins as a homemade project leads to the accidental discovery of a mysterious material that behaves unlike anything science says should exist. Suddenly, a quiet teenager from a forgotten Oklahoma town isn't just dreaming about flight...

He's challenging the laws of physics themselves.

As the annual science competition approaches, rivals close in, and the world begins to notice, Zelven must decide whether to hide the impossible...

...or prove that history's greatest discoveries sometimes begin with cardboard wings, loyal friends, and the courage to fail one more time.

Cardboard Wings is a heartfelt coming-of-age science fiction novel about friendship, perseverance, first dreams, and the extraordinary discoveries that can come from ordinary people who refuse to stop asking "What if?"

Perfect for readers who love the friendship of Stand by Me, the wonder of early Stranger Things, and science-driven adventures filled with heart.