Editor’s Choice
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Here readers will find a list of titles that the editor has chosen to highlight. Each month a new title is added to this list |
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This Month’s Editor’s Choice
Above World
Fiction Series
For ages 9 to 12
Candlewick, 2012 ISBN: 978-0763654177
Many years ago, humans finally came to understand that their population was too large and no longer sustainable. They came up with an extraordinary solution to this problem: they decided that some of their number they would modify their bodies to that they could live in places that had hitherto not been populated by humans. Thus the Kampaii lived in the shallower oceans, the Deepfell lived in the deep oceans, the Aviars had wings and lived in the skies, and the Equian people had hooves and lived in the deserts.
Life has been comfortable for the Coral Kampii, Aluna’s people, until now. Recently several of the Kampii have drowned because their shell necklaces, the tech devices that allow them to breathe underwater, have failed. When Aluna finds the body of her friend Makina floating in a kelp forest she gets furious. How can the Elders pretend that all is well? Someone needs to find out why the breathing necklaces are failing before all the Coral Kampii die.
On the day when Aluna is supposed to get her tail, she decides that she cannot stand by while her people die. Someone has to go to the Above World to find out why the necklaces, which were made by HydroTek, are failing. With her best friend Hoku by her side, Aluna leaves the only world she knows to walk around on her feet, and to face the Upgraders, creatures whose bodies are made of machine parts and “parts” that were taken from other beings.
Aluna and Hoku are not in the Above World long before they are captured by Aviars and taken to Skyfeather’s Landing, one of the Aviar strongholds. At first the Kampii teenagers are prisoners, but when they help defend the city from the Upgraders, Aluna and Hoku and the people of the air become allies. The Aviar have managed to free themselves from the stranglehold of Fathom, the Upgrader leader, and Aluna understands that her people will have to do the same. As long as Fathom is in control of the Hydrotek technology, her people will never be able to control their breathing necklaces and the other tech they depend on.
With the blessing of the Aviars, Hoku and Aluna set off once more to try to find HydroTek and they meet Dash, an Equian teen. Since Dash is on his own, he joins Hoku and Aluna in their quest, standing by their sides when they are pursued by Upgraders. The three young people are then joined by Calli, an Avian that they made friends with when they were in Skyfeather’s Landing. Though they are all very different in temperament and personality, when they are together, the four teens are a force to be reckoned with. Aluna and Dash are excellent fighters, while Calli and Hoku are tech wizards. They do not know if they will be strong enough to defeat Fathom and the creatures he has made, but they have to try.
This fascinating and beautifully written book will delight readers who have a fondness for books that are full of bizarre and otherworldly beings and creatures. Elements of fantasy and science fiction are combined with tense adventure sequences to give readers a memorable futuristic title. Readers will be interested to see how young people can change their world if they have the will and courage to defend what they know is right.
This is the first title in what promises to be an exciting new series.
Previous Editor’s Choice Titles
February 2004
By Catherine Jinks
March 2004
April 2004
Illustrated by David A. Johnson
May 2004
June 2004
By Anais Vaugelade
July 2004
By Mary Hooper
August 2004
By Kenneth Oppel
September 2004
By Sarah Stewart
Illustrated by David Small
October 2004
By Avi
November 2004
By Bodil Bredsdorff
December 2004
By Jeanne DuPrau
January 2005
By Brigitte Weninger
Illustrated by Eve Tharlet
February 2005
By Jon J. Muth
March 2005
By Marian Hale
April 2005
By Jeff Brumbeau
Illustrated by Gail de Marcken
May and June 2005
By Douglas Wood
Illustrated by Dan Andreasen
July 2005
Illustrated by Jon Muth
August 2005
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
By J.K. Rowling
September 2005
By Patricia Reilly Giff
October 2005
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
By Michael Morpurgo
November 2005
By Steve Augarde
December 2005
By Dugald A. Steer
Illustrations by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, John Howe, Tomislav Tomic, and Helen Ward
January and February 2006
Dickens: His work and his world
Michael Rosen
Illustrated by Robert Ingpen
March 2006
By Gloria Whelan
April 2006
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
By Kate DiCamillo
May 2006
By Charmian Hussey
June 2006
Septimus Heap: Book One – Magyk
By Angie Sage
July 2006
By Nina Payne
Illustrated by Adam Payne
August 2006
By Matthew Skelton
September 2006
By Cynthia Rylant
October 2006
By Susan Beth Pfeffer
November 2006
Peter H. Reynolds
December 2006
Duncan Cameron and Richard Platt
January 2007
Eoin Colfer
February 2007
Markus Zusak
March 2007
Bernard Waber
April 2007
Ruth White
May 2007
Gretchen Moran Laskas
June 2007
Sally Swain
July 2007
Michael Morpurgo
August 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
J.K. Rowling
September 2007
Mathilde Stein
Illustrated by Mies van Hout
October 2007
Ida B…and her plans to Maximize fun, avoid disaster and (Possibly) save the world
Katherine Hannigan
November 2007
The Loud Silence of Francine Green
Karen Cushman
December 2007
January 2008
Tunnels
Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
February 2008
By Jonathan Bean
March 2008
By Alice Walker
April 2008
By Matthew Van Fleet
May 2008
By Caroline Bingham, Ben Morgan, and Matthew Robertson
June 2008
By Susan Beth Pfeffer
July 2008
By Kimberly K. Jones
August 2008
By Simon Winchester
September 2008
By Sophie Benini Pietromarchi
October 2008
Bonny Becker
Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
November 2008
Elise Broach
Illustrated by Kelly Murphy
December 2008
Sucks to be me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe)
Kimberly Pauley
January 2009
How to get rich in the California Gold Rush
Todd Olson
Illustrated by Scott Allred
February 2009
Sarah Prineas
Illustrated by Antonio Javier Caparo
March 2009
The Year the swallows came early
Kathyrn Fitzmaurice
April 2009
Barbara Lehman
May 2009
Hounsley and Catina: Plink and Plunk
James Howe
Illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay
June 2009
Stephen Michael King
July and August 2009
The evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Jacqueline Kelly
September and October 2009
Marie Rutkoski
November and December 2009
Sebastian Meschenmoser
January and February 2010
Saci Lloyd
March and April 2010
Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies
Julie Andrews and Emma Hamilton
May and June 2010
Matthew Skelton
July and August 2010
Sarah Dessen
September and October 2010
F.E. Higgins
November and December 2010
Wendelin Van Draanen
January and February 2011
Timothee de Fomelle
Illustrated by Francois Place
March and April 2011
William Shakespeare: His Life and Times
Kristin McDermott and Ari Berk
Illustrated by Ian Andrew, Diz Wallis and Eloise Lambert
May and June 2011
Frances O’Roark Dowell
July and August 2011
Ann Aguirre
September and October 2011
Amy Ignatow
