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Aquifer, by Jonathan Friesen (book review) – water is life, light is life, control is power

Aug19

book cover of Aquifer by Jonathan Friesen published by ZondervanLight – the Rats forgo it so they can control the water,
one of the most basic human needs;
The Prime Minister controls everything – and everyone – else.

Underground for so many generations, the humans guarding Earth’s last freshwater source have mutated into Rat-like darkness dwellers… that’s what the Council tells the Toppers in 2250, when rain on the Earth’s surface is only a memory and emotions are deemed unnecessary.

Imagine having to memorize each step and turn of the long, perilous journey to the Aquifer! If Luca’s father, the Deliverer, is brave enough to face the Rats at the Aquifer every year to renew the water agreement, why is he so sad and distant the rest of the year?

Be sure to have a big drink of cool, clear, fresh water at hand when you read this intriguing tale of a future Australia and a young man whose emotions refuse to stay sedated – just published this month.

**kmm

Book info: Aquifer / Jonathan Friesen.  Zondervan, 2013.   [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Luca knows someday he will be Deliverer, making the dangerous journey underground to ensure New Pert’s freshwater supply, but all the Toppers believe about the Rats controlling the Aquifer in 2250 may be a lie.

Only needful work is allowed, no wasteful emotions or art or writing, say the Prime Minister and the Council, so the precious water lasts all year, until the Deliverer renews the agreement with the dreadful Rats by taking them lightsticks that only the Toppers can make.

At 15, Luca is nearly done with school, trying to train his mind to remain calm, practicing the memorized steps and turns of the journey to the Aquifer that his father teaches him, the dreadful journey that someday will be his to make as Deliverer.

Trying to stay unnoticed by the Watchful Amongus is essential, else the Council’s enforcers will cast offenders in chains and dump them into the sea – “undone” from this life. When Luca hides a classmate who’s declared undone in the Deliverer’s shack, he starts a chain of events that could undo the cautious agreement between the Rats and the Toppers, breaking off the water supply or opening it forever.

Why does the museum-keeper show Luca the things she calls “books” and teach him to write?
What broke the spirit of the Deliverer – his many journeys to the Aquifer or something else?
When the time comes, will Luca be brave enough to travel underground as Deliverer?

Forbidden friendships, shared secrets, widespread lies, and even bigger truths fill this tale of a future Australia where spirits are parched for affection as much as their bodies are longing for water from the Aquifer. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Replica, by Jenna Black (book review) – clones, cops, and secrets

Aug12

book cover of Replica by Jenna Black published by Tor TeenExecutive Board members get memory backups regularly,
Executive families scramble to marry into the Board,
mere Employees do all the work, take all the risks, hide their own secrets…

Don’t send me to this future where corporations have purchased governments, and Paxco (former New York City) exports a memory-and-clones technology that no other Corporate State can match.

Nadia has to balance her conscience with the safety of her family when assassination gets too close to home, too close to the truth.

Read the first chapter of Replica here, then zip to your nearest local library or independent bookstore to get your copy.  Resistance,  book 2 in this new series, currently has a March 2014 publication date.

**kmm

Book info: Replica / Jenna Black.  Tor Teen, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Nadia’s future was all lined out, until her intended was killed and his Replica animated to replace him. As she and new-Nate try to fill in his memory gaps, the head of Security threatens them with more permanent erasure. Someone has secrets to hide…

The teen must be on her best behavior in public (the media is vicious), and she can’t even let her guard down at home – all Executive families know that some Employees spy for the Corporation.  Her soon-to-be fiance Nate doesn’t know what discretion means, even though someday he’ll inherit Chairmanship of Paxco (formerly known as New York City) from his father.

When Nate is killed at a party and Nadia was last to see him alive, her life becomes a nightmare as Security publically arrests her (such damaging publicity) and promises to harm her family if she doesn’t cooperate. Reanimated Nate’s last memory backup was 2 weeks before the party, so he can’t help prove her innocence. But perhaps his personal valet Bishop could… if they can find him in the Basement tenements where all Employees are crammed together. For the Replica technology reserved for highest Executive families is Paxco’s only export and must be supported by the peaceful labor of Employees.

Mosely of Security says Nadia must find the valet if she wants her family to remain safe, Nadia doesn’t trust him, and Bishop is not interested in endangering himself for her benefit – stalemate or powderkeg waiting for just the wrong/right spark to explode the Basement into violence against the Executives?

Is Nadia helping the true Nate or just the Nate she wants to see?
Why does running Replica take so many Employees?
What are the secrets that Paxco and Nate and Bishop are trying to hide?

Of all the Corporates States (of former America), Paxco seems to be a difficult place for truth to thrive, whether for Executive, Employee, or Replica in this future world thriller.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Bubble World, by Carol Snow (book review) – virtual world, real love?

Aug5

book cover of Bubble World by Carol Snow published by Henry HoltParties, cute clothes!
More friend-time, less classwork.
Perfect world – or total illusion?

Freesia’s parents think she’s getting the best education available (and have the big tuition bills to prove it), the teen and her friendlies on Agalinas think school is a big party, and all of them are completely wrong!

This just-published novel starts off as frothy as Freesia’s favorite fruity beverage, but the secrets of Bubble World  are dark and deep. Ask for it at your favorite local library or independent bookstore and see if anyone escapes this school misadventure unscathed!

Is it wrong to want to run away from real life when it bores you to death?
**kmm

Book info: Bubble World / Carol Snow. Henry Holt, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Immersion classes and mega-parties on a tropical island – high school in paradise, with shopping, ziplines, and the cutest itty-cars! Freesia and her friendlies love being here, but these recent power outages are so wackacchino, like something is going wrong on Agalinas. Um, like what went wrong on the mainland?

Freesia’s parents and adoring little sister know the beautiful high schooler needs lots of time to be with her friendlies (and keep tabs on her enemies via bubble) and lots of shells to spend on clothes. Her bubble helps with Attire Assistance for her extensive wardrobe, holds her Outfit Registry (wear an outfit more than once every 4 months? Never!), and keeps her Chase Bennett music playing.

Her teachers match the snacks to the class, like bimbimbop and kimchee for Korean immersion and culture, but they don’t make the students wear themselves out speaking the language or doing homework. More time for parties and waterslides and shopping!

With exquisite houses and perfect beaches for these gorgeous teens, no one wonders why there’s no airport or passenger boat service to the mainland… but Freesia and best friend Ricky start to wonder about the more-frequent outages and discover startling things about Agalinas Island and Bubble World.

When one outage doesn’t reboot like normal, Freesia finds herself on the mainland, in her real non-beautiful body as Francine, in her family’s real house in the desert! What her parents thought about her virtual school is nowhere close to its reality; what Freesia thought was reality is closed off from her now.

How can Francine/Freesia cope with Phoenix instead of paradise?
Do her Agalinas friendlies miss her as much as she misses them?
How can she get back to the island??

Identity, reality, and friendship get spun and twisted around in this near-future tale of trying to use the digital world to avoid coping with the real world. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Memory of After, by Lenore Appelhans (book review) – sinister stop-off between life and heaven

Jun6

book cover of Memory of After by Lenore Appelhans published by Simon SchusterDead, but not gone,
memory lives on,
in limbo, but never heaven?

Felicia figured she was more likely to end up in hell than heaven, considering what she’d done with Julian and to her best friend before she was banished to Grammy’s small town, but her time with Neal was slowly convincing her that forgiveness was possible.

And then she died – bam – end of second chances… or was it? Given a choice of revisiting memories of Neal forever or trying to change a corrupt system, she does have a second chance – if she dares to act.

In an unusual turn, the publisher realized that the hardback title Level 2  and its cover art (shown next to My Book Talk section) did not fit with the story, so the paperback (issued just 3 months after original pub date) uses the new title and art seen above. I agree that their first choice made this book look and sound like some paranormal video game, rather than the contest between good, not-so-good, maybe-evil, and oh-so-bad that it is.

Could you give up your favorite memories to move on?
**kmm

Book info: The Memory of After (Memory Chronicles, book 1) [hardback title: Level 2] / Lenore Appelhans. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013.  [author’s blog]  [publisher site]  [author video interview]

book cover of Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans published by Simon Schuster, reissued as Memory of After

original hardback cover art & title

My book talk: Felicia’s not in heaven or hell, just stuck in Level 2 reliving memories over and over. When another girl in her pod vanishes and no one else remembers she was there, the teen thinks something’s amiss. When a dangerous guy from her past on Earth invades the pod to recruit her into a revolt against the angels, she knows something really strange is going on!

Not that Felicia was a good girl as a teenager, but dying just a day short of her 18th birthday seems so unfair. After the horrific incident with Julian and her best friend Autumn in Germany, her diplomat parents sent to live with her grandmother Stateside.

Felicia has lived in cities around the world, so the tiny Oklahoma town and Grammy’s strictness strangle her, but maybe it’s punishment she deserves.  School, church, school, home – that’s it. Meeting Neal at church youth group is the best thing in her world. Maybe she can overcome her guilt after all, with his love and help.

Now here she is with other dead teen girls in their stark white pod, not hungry or thirsty, accessing the best-ever memories. like her time with Neal. Suddenly Beckah finds herself trapped in her own terrifying death memory and is gone when Felicia checks on her later…and the other girls swear there never was any Beckah!

Julian’s abrupt appearance in the pod is alarming – no one ever comes in, let alone boys! He says he’s coming back for Felicia, then leaves. What’s going on? How did Julian find her? Is he dead, too?

As the pod is attacked and Felicia flees with Julian, she sees that there are thousands of pods, which means many thousands of people-drones here with their memories instead of in heaven or hell…

Why did angels set up pods filled with good memories that no one wants to abandon?
Why does Julian need Felicia’s help to “restore balance” in the afterlife?
Is Neal in one of those pods?

The battle is just beginning in this new series that takes the power of memories to a whole new level.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau (book review) – keep friends close, enemies closer?

Jun2

book cover of The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau published by Houghton MifflinFor a chance at your dream, how far would you go?
What would you sacrifice?
How much can you give without giving up who you are?

This dystopian novel of trials and trust, peril and personal integrity, desperation and death is not a Hunger Games knockoff, by any means.

Testing completely done in secret, candidates’ minds wiped after they fail or succeed, the lucky ones who get into Tosu University will be assigned to other colonies and never see their families again.

Gotta be glad that the consequences of our standardized testing in the US aren’t so severe…

This is Charbonneau’s first foray into the sci-fi world and young adult books, as her previous books feature Chicago women who wind up in small towns solving mysteries, one series with inherited roller-skating rink, the other with glee club director. Glad that this is the first in a trilogy, as I can’t wait to see what happens after the candidates get to the university.

Tor.com shares a short prequel to the story, to tide you over until publication day on Tuesday, June 4.

So, how do you decide who to trust?
**kmm

Book info: The Testing (Testing, book 1) / Joelle Charbonneau.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My book talk: Of course, Cia longs for a chance to attend the University! But to pass the Testing, she must be willing to do anything and to trust no one… not even her first love. The stakes are high – the dangers are too numerous to count.

All the scientists, teachers, and leaders of the cataclysm-torn United Commonwealth have passed The Testing and succeeded at Tosu University. When graduation day closes with no word from the capital, Cia thinks she’s stuck working on tractors in Five Lakes Colony forever. But the next day brings a Tosu official who tells Cia, Tomas, Malachi, and Zandri that they will leave for the Testing in the morning!

As her family and friends celebrate, Cia’s father tells of his recurring nightmares from his Testing time and  warns her to trust no one. From the moment they leave Five Lakes, everything is part of the Testing. There are only 20 openings at the University and over 150 Testing this year. Coming from her collaborative community, the 16-year-old thinks Dad is exaggerating, until another Testing candidate tries to poison her before the first exams begin!

The academic exams are hard, the practical and cooperative exams are harder, with more and more students failing each level. Phase 3 drops the remaining candidates into a city shattered by war, instructing them to return to Tosu City through hundreds of miles of disaster-blasted territory, equipped only with a few survival supplies and their wits. They can make alliances if they wish, but still only 20 will be allowed into the University… if that many survive.

Has Cia chosen the right equipment for the journey?
Can she locate Tomas near the drop-point?
Is she right to trust the boy she’s known and loved all her life – or is her father right?

First in a series set in a future United States trying to rebuild itself after nuclear war and worldwide geologic shifts, The Testing  asks whether being truly human is more than just surviving at any cost.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy through NetGalley and cover image both courtesy of the publisher.

Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry, by Dave Roman (book review) – heart-eating monster disrupts space school

May13
book cover of Astronaut Academy Reentry by Dave Roman published by First Second Books

Students from many different places,
with different traditions and expectations,
bound together by Fireball game fever,
while a monster roams their school space station.

Happy Children’s Book Week! Graphic novels and picture books for all ages are some great ways to celebrate right along with the littlies.

With insider nods to pop culture of his own school days, a blithe mashup of then-now-future (dinosaur riding practice after space evacuation drills), and the enduring hope of friendship, author/cartoonist Dave Roman brings us more fun and mystery at the school we’d all love to attend as the second semester begins at Astronaut Academy.

Of course, you’ll enjoy the rivalry, friendship, and secrets of book 2 even more if you read book 1, Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity  first (my no-spoiler review here).

You can check out an excerpt of the latest adventures at Astronaut Academy here, then head over to your local library  or independent bookstore to reserve your copy now – its book birthday is tomorrow, May 15, 2013!

What would you do with your spare hearts if you had multiples like the Astronaut Academy students?
**kmm

Book info: Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry (Astronaut Academy #2) / written and illustrated by Dave Roman. First Second Books, 2013.   [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: A heart-eating monster in space! Friends and arch-rivals, a wicked gang, and a ban on love will make this the toughest semester ever for the students of Astronaut Academy who must guard their hearts as they prepare for the Fireball Championship Match.

Somehow, a shape-shifting monster has infiltrated Astronaut Academy during the semester break, masquerading as the person each student has a secret crush on, tricking them into giving it their extra hearts, then devouring the hearts!

When you attend school in outer space, having multiple hearts is essential, of course. Yes, students can give a heart to someone they care about, but no one with just one heart is allowed to play Fireball for safety reasons. Tak Offsky loses two hearts to the monster, so must recruit his roommate for the Fireball team, despite Hakata’s unfamiliarity with the sport.

The evil geniuses of Team Feety Pajamas challenge Munchie Ng in Monchichimon cards, Hakata’s arch-nemesis joins their rival school’s Fireball team just to spite him, and the monster continues to eat up hearts!

Can the school’s new ban on love stop this monster?
Will Astronaut Academy have enough eligible players for the Fireball finals?
Will Hakata be able to share his secret past without losing another heart?

If the students can get past the cancellation of the Talent Spelling Bee and avoid falling in love, perhaps they can solve this problem and catch the monster that’s wrecking their semester at Astronaut Academy! A great follow-up to Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity,  the first graphic novel in Dave Roman’s out-of-this-world school series.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Fox Forever, by Mary E. Pearson (book review) – a favor repaid, lives in danger

May10

book cover of Fox Forever by Mary E Pearson published by Henry HoltA prisoner with a secret,
A revolution waiting to explode,
A reluctant hero with a chilling secret of his own.

Uploaded into a memory cube as he lay dying, just as his two best friends were, after the car crash. Who knew so many generations would pass before Locke, Kara, and Jenna had new bodies for their minds to inhabit? Who knew that only Jenna’s parents had okayed the procedure? Who could imagine that Locke would be visiting his own grave in Boston?

Start with The Adoration of Jenna Fox  (#1) and The Fox Inheritance  (#2)  (my no-spoiler review here) at your local library or independent bookstore, then you’ll be ready for the outcome-not-guaranteed conclusion of this story spanning over 260 years.

Would you want to stay alive if it meant outliving everyone you loved?
**kmm

Book info: Fox Forever (Jenna Fox Chronicles, #3) / Mary E. Pearson. Henry Holt, 2013. [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Locke owes a favor, and he’ll do whatever it takes to honor that – return to Boston where he’ll be hunted, befriend a stuck-up girl to get information, put other people in danger. And he’ll find answers to questions he didn’t ask, questions about Jenna Fox and redemption and fate.

It’s a Favor, with a capital F, someone calling in all the chips spent by others trying to get the teen safely to the West Coast after his escape from Gartsbro’s human lab, where the good doctor placed his mind into an improved body, generations after it was illegally downloaded just before Locke’s untimely death.

There’s big money at stake and the lives of thousands of people denied Citizen rights because their grandparents chose the wrong side in a political dispute, too. A leader of the Resistance in secret prison being tortured to get the account number before those billions of duros revert to whatever country the secret account is in, and the deadline is just days away.

So Locke has an impossibly short time to finagle his way into Security Secretary’s household through his teenage daughter, find secret maps to the secret prison, rescue the prisoner and get the account number to the Resistance… while not letting anyone know he was born over 270 years ago and is classified as non-human under current law because of the percentage of Bio-Gel coursing through his body.

Is the prisoner still alive and sane after 11 years in solitary?
Can Locke really infiltrate Raine’s posh inner circle without giving himself away?
How will the Resistance deal with the other information that he uncovers?

This third volume of The Jenna Fox Chronicles weaves the many threads and characters of the series into a heart-pounding conclusion as Locke discovers surprises and truths about himself, Jenna, Kara, and humankind. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Z for zzzzz – Stung, by Bethany Wiggins (book review) – bees extinct, humanity next?

Apr30

book cover of Stung by Bethany Wiggins published by Walker BloomsburyNo bees, no pollination.
No pollination, no food.
No food, now anarchy.

Bee flu? Bioengineered bee-replacements? Vaccine-induced madness coupled with super-human strength? Not the Denver that I want to visit…

You can read an excerpt from the first chapter of Stung  here.

Will we be able to save today’s normal bees and save ourselves?
**kmm

Book info:  Stung / Bethany Wiggins. Walker & Company, 2013.  [author blog]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Fiona suddenly awakens in her bedroom, clean in a world of filth and dust, looking like she’s seventeen yet feeling thirteen. She knows she must hide the ten-legged tattoo on her hand, but can’t remember why.

Attacked by a snarling savage man who might be her brother, she flees her family’s shattered house, seeking answers, finding hostility from neighbors. Reward posters offer ounces of rarer-than-gold honey for live captives with the tattoo – she recalls something about bees dying.

Rescued from vicious men by a ragged child, Fi finds a world of refugee Fecs in the sewers. The tattooed ones turn violent as teenagers and are hunted down by the militia before they can mindlessly attack the clean citizens behind the Wall. A three can break a strong man’s arm without effort – what could a ten like Fiona do? But she still feels human…

An attempt to rescue a three from the militia goes wrong, and Fiona is sonic-shocked. She recognizes her captor as Bowen, her next-door-neighbor, the younger brother. He is stunned to hear her speak, as the violent impulses always choke out rational thought.

Eventually convinced that Fiona won’t turn violent, Bowen tells her what’s happened during her four-year memory gap. Scientists tried to rescue dwindling bee populations and created disease, tried to cure the disease and created monsters. Each leg on a tattoo means one dose received –  and one step closer to violence and madness. People with no tattoo weren’t exposed to the cure and won’t turn violent, so healthy ones can live inside the Wall – for a time.

But something is wrong with this theory – if Fiona has ten marks, why isn’t she a mindless monster by now? How did she suddenly appear in a clean dress in her old house? Why can’t she remember the past four years? Why does the Governor want her so badly that he offers full life inside the Wall for her capture, dead or alive?

Battling against more than just loss of water and resources, Fiona and Bowen work on the mystery as they try to escape from the militia, the slavetraders, the Fecs, and the Governor in a frightening future where not one bee buzzes. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Mothership, by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal (book review) – pregnant teens, space yacht, attacked!

Mar20

book cover of Mothership by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal published by Simon Schuster BFYRPregnant at sixteen,
the dad leaves town,
by 2074, some things haven’t changed.

But having such a surplus of unused earth-orbiting luxury cruise ships that one can be repurposed into a school for unwed mothers? That definitely puts this book into sci fi category (aliens as high school teachers and vid-ads targeted to your personal nutritional and health needs are just bonus!)

You can find Elvie’s rather offbeat pregnancy journey at your local library or independent bookstore as it’s a 2012 release (still waiting on publication date for book 2).

Anyone you know been abducted by aliens lately?
**kmm

Book info: Mothership (The Ever-Expanding Universe, Book 1) / Martin Leicht and Isla Neal. Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2012. [Martin’s info]  [Isla’s info]  [video interview]   [publisher site] [book trailer]   (Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher)

My Book Talk: Elvie wanted to go into space, but as part of the Mars colonization project, not as a pregnant teen in the first-ever low-orbit high school for unwed mothers… Getting attacked by paramilitaries wasn’t part of the plan either, but Elvie still has some brains despite the Bump.

She’s been planning her whole life to travel everywhere, like her mom didn’t get to do, dying when Elvie was born, leaving behind a huge book of maps with notes about future family trips. Her dad has an emergency plan for absolutely any possible (or improbable) event and decides that Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers is just the place for her; he obviously didn’t know that Elvie’s nemesis in the Class of 2076 would be part of the school’s first group, too.

And the baby’s daddy? Vanished into thin air as soon as Elvie told him the news. Thankfully, she has best-friend-for-life Ducky as backup; that guy is so dorky about researching pregnancy stuff. Too bad he’s on Earth, and Elvie’s in orbit with snooty cheerleader Britta, who got pregnant a couple of weeks before her. No, Elvie won’t tell her that Cole fathered both babies; she doesn’t have a death wish.

When an unexpected ship docks onto the space cruise liner, Hanover is boarded by paramilitary forces…including Cole, who tells Elvie that her teachers are aliens and that their babies aren’t exactly their own anymore. She decides her baby belongs on Earth when it’s born in a few weeks, so she and the other very-pregnant teens waddle through escape routes and try to sabotage the aliens’ plans along the way.

If the teachers are aliens, what are the paramilitary guys?
Should Elvie believe the handsome hunk who knocked her up and left town?
Will there be any chocolate-pretzel-caramel-prenatal ice cream left in the snack center?

In this first book of the Ever-Expanding Universe series, Elvie’s life changes drastically in a short time; the rest of Earth’s population is in for a big surprise as well!

Safekeeping, by Karen Hesse (fiction) – on the run, will home still be there?

Feb7
book cover of Safekeeping by Karen Hesse published by Fiewel and Friends

The president assassinated!
Martial law declared.
No travel without permits.

She got her plane ticket home as soon as she could, leaving the sweet children at the Haitian orphanage where she volunteered. But there was no way for Radley to know that her parents would not be at the airport waiting for her and that everything she knew as safe would be gone.

Listen to the first chapter of Safekeeping  here, then grab the book at your local library or independent bookstore so you can consider each of each black-and-white photograph as you worry through Celia, Radley, and Jerry Lee’s desperate journey away from despair and danger.

What would you do to survive if you were in Radley’s mud-soaked shoes?
**kmm

Book info: Safekeeping / Karen Hesse. Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan), 2012. [author’s blog]  [author video interview]  [publisher site]

My Recommendation: When the president is assassinated, Radley rushes home from volunteering at a Haitian orphanage, but everything is going wrong. Her parents should be waiting for her at the airport, but they’re not. No one answers the phone at home, her credit cards no longer work, her cellphone is dead, and US marshals are everywhere.

New curfews and travel restrictions mean that the teen must walk for days to cover the hour’s drive home, avoiding checkpoints and scavenging food where she can find it. Arriving at her empty house, Radley passes dark stains on the pavement and hides in a secret attic room as police pound on the door in the morning, over and over.
No electricity, no food left, only mom’s photos escaped the looting. She can’t stay here, she’s got to get away – from the marshals, from the uncertainty about her parents’ whereabouts, from the totalitarian state that New Hampshire has become.

So she heads north to Canada, traveling by night, avoiding other people and their potential dangers, staying clear of the small towns swarming with soldiers, until a big dog comes to her and begs that she follow him. Radley finds Celia ill and feverish, nurses her until the trio can continue plodding north through the rainy woods.
A small, safe place – that’s all they need – somewhere away from the soldiers and curfews and guns.
Can Radley, Celia, and Jerry Lee actually make it to Canada?
Where are their parents, their neighbors, their friends?
Will they ever be able to go home, or will martial law grip the US forever?
Karen Hesse’s own black-and-white photographs of the places where the girls and dog travel fill this book with darkness and light, as the cadence of her words measures the steps and steps and steps that Radley takes on this long journey.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.