From: Merri Lindgren <mlindgren_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:33:43 -0500

"Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi stands out among recent speculative fiction for me, both for its credible near-future setting and the strong theme of an ever-increasing gap between those with economic resources and those without. I also appreciated the character of Tool, the engineered half-man, half-dog. While the idea isn't new, Tool's defiance of behavioral expectations and his demonstration of free will seemed to pick up the torch from Arthur C. Clarke's HAL, raising questions about people's ability to control everything they create.

I'm curious to hear if anyone has heard from teens who have read "Ship Breaker" or any of the other titles mentioned in Megan's email. Has the popularity of The Hunger Games triggered an interest in other new books imagining a difficult future?

Merri

-- Merri Lindgren, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) School of Education, UW-Madison 608-263-3930 mlindgren_at_education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 04 Aug 2010 09:33:43 AM CDT