The Eleventh Plague

Jeff Hirsch is another author who was at the Anderson’s Bookshop Young Adult Literature Conference and he too has written a dystopian novel. This is his first.

It is a cool cover. Did you know that most of the time authors have no choice in the covers that are chosen for their books? I don’t know if he had any input or not.

There has been a “collapse” after a terrible war and the United States is not as we know it. The Eleventh Plague was a plague release by China and it killed millions of people.  Stephen was born after this war and all he knows is the world that exists in his time. He and his father and his grandfather are salvagers – they roam the country looking for items that they can trade for food and clothes. Now even that life is disappearing when his grandfather dies and his father is injured so badly by slavers that he falls into a coma.

Stephen and his dad end up at a place called Settler’s Landing. Stephen has to learn to trust people and this is difficult. His grandfather taught him to never trust anyone. Now he has to learn who he can trust and who he can’t trust. Stephen has to make his own decisions, he has no one else to rely on to make those choices.

Ashes

I had the opportunity to listen to Ilsa Bick talk about this book at the Anderson’s Bookshop Young Adult Literature Conference. According to the author everything that she talks about in this book that is scientific is possible and the technology exists for it to take place. SCARY! This woman has been a major in the Air Force, a surgeon, a child psychologist, a film scholar, and is now an author living in rural Wisconsin. WOW!

Alex has run away and is hiking in Michigan. Her parents were killed a couple of years ago and now Alex has an inoperable brain tumor. She has taken her father’s Glock, some supplies, and her parents’ ashes to spread on the shores of Lake Superior. She has just met Jack, his granddaughter Ellie, and Mina (their dog). Suddenly Jack is pressing both hands to his temples, Mina is completely rigid, and Alex feels like a laser has scorched her brain – there has been a high intensity electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

When Alex awakes from this experience, she has acquired a heightened sense of smell, something she had lost due to the brain tumor. Jack is dead so Alex has to take 8-year-old Ellie and Mina with her. Now begins the adventure in a world that is totally changed. Nothing electronic works anymore; no cell phones, computers, cars, etc. Alex is on a quest to survive in a world where everyone is desperate and some have become zombies.

I didn’t know if I would like this book, but I really found it fascinating and something I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next. This is the first book in what is to be a trilogy.

Phantom Tollbooth

The book tells of Milo’s travels through a magical tollbooth and begins a journey to the Kingdom of Wisdom, where he and a “watch” dog named Tock try to end the feud between numbers and words.

Read a preview in Google Books

The Lexile is 1000

This book is 50 years old this year! If you don’t want to do the math, it was published in 1961. Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer talk about how they wrote this book.

The Queen of Water

Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango collaborated on writing this novel which is based on the true story of Virginia’s life as an indígena (native) from an Andean village in Ecuador in the 1980s. Her parents are very poor tenant famers and are convinced or coerced into letting their 7-year-old daughter become a servant to a mestizo (mixed race, light skinned) couple, Doctorita (the wife) and Nino Carlitos. In exchange she is to be abe to come home monthly, be paid, and be given an education. Virginia is not looking for pity, but you need to know her story and know that hers is not the only story like this.

She is called stupid, longo, and forced to do all the house-work and take care of the children. Remember she is seven. Virginia is kept away from her family, never paid, and often kept locked away in the couple’s home. She forgets her native language, Quichua, and speaks only Spanish. She is beaten by Doctorita for even a minor infractions of the couple’s rules. This mestizo couple are educated – she is a dentist and he is a teacher. Yet, they don’t seem to see anything wrong with enslaving this young girl. They don’t give her any of the things her parent were told, no visits, no education, and no money. Virginia cannot even eat off the same plates the family uses.

Virginia is truly a strong person and she survives all the torture and torment. She returns to her family and works her way through high school. And now her story has been told.

This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. You can read an excerpt at Google Books.

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About the author & the book

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein

This is called the prequel to Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein. The story is told from Victor Frankenstein’s point of view and the main characters are Victor, his twin, Konrad, their cousin Elizabeth, their friend Henry, and an alchemist, Julius Poidori.

On one of the friends adventures at the Frankenstein’s chateau, they discover a hidden library, Biblioteka Obscura (the Dark Library) built by an ancestor who was an alchemist. Despite promising his father that he would not return to the library, Victor was hooked on knowing more about this mysterious world.

When Konrad became ill, Victor, Elizabeth, and Henry, worked to find the ingredients for an elixir that would save the twin. Their search leads them to the old alchemist Julius Poidori.

The story has some romance as Elizabeth and Konrad fall in love. Victor is furious that he is not the one that Elizabeth loves. If you have not read the novel, Frankenstein, you probably won’t know that some of the things that happen in the book are there because of what happens in the older novel.

Kenneth Oppel has planned a sequel to this book, Such Wicked Intent. The novel is also going to made into a movie too.

Google Books Frankenstein

Book Trailer from Simon & Schuster:

The Berlin Boxing Club

Karl Stern is 14-years-old. He lives in Berlin, Germany. The time is the 1930s. If you don’t remember, this is the time and place that Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party were on the rise. Karl is Jewish though he doesn’t look it. He suffers at the hands of the bullies in his school and his nation. Karl’s father is an art dealer and knows the famous German boxer Max Schmeling. In exchange for a piece of art Schmeling becomes Karl’s coach.

As the story opens, Karl isn’t overly concerned about the Nazis. His family is not practicing the Jewish religion. However, as the story progresses you see that the Nazi movement becomes central to Karl’s life and his family’s survival. It does not matter to the Nazis that the Sterns are not really invested in the Jewish faith.

Karl’s mom has many emotional problems. Karl’s dad wants to avoid all conflict if possible – why? As you read in the novel you will learn about Mr. Stern’s past. You will meet Karl’s Uncle Jacob, a Communist, who is arrested and dies at Dachau. You will also meet the Countess. Karl reacts to this person with a measure of discomfort until he learns more about the Countess’s past and how it relates to his father.

Karl is an artist. He loves to draw cartoons. He draws and writes stories for his little sister. He also draws stories that express his feelings – he creates superheroes like the famed Superman. Comic strips were a very important part of everyday life for many people at this time in history. My own parents followed the comics: Krazy Kat, Superman, Buck Rogers, Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, and Popeye.

This book does not give you the feeling that all German people were bad, but it does show you what happens when people are too frightened to go against the group that was in power and chose to persecute groups that did not fit their “model”.

Watch the Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling – June 19, 1936
Max Schmeling: A Hero

Lexile 880