IT’S RAINING, IT’S POURING…

A book review by Theresa from the Children's Room: 

The story is set sometime in the future though not too far off. It takes place in England which not all that different than the United States. But in this time and place in a world not very different from ours the rain has turned deadly. All water is now poisoned due to some inert bacteria brought to our universe on the back of an asteroid and now awake and multiplying in the earth’s water supply. 

In the world Virginia Bergin creates in her novel H2O the reader meets 15 year-old Ruby and her friends having a party which for many of them would be the last one of their lives. With radio broadcasts warning the dangers of any contact with water running in the background the awful truth soon is revealed—contact is fatal, it’s contagious and there is no cure. Through luck and some skill Ruby manages to be one of the very few survivors. After the deaths of her mother, brother and step-father she is left on her own and does quite a bit of floundering as the challenges she must face to survive are significant. Does she make it, does the earth survive this calamity? Only the reader knows if it’s time to start carrying an umbrella. 

For grades 5-8.

IS THIS OUR WORLD’S FUTURE?

The year is not certain but the story is set in the future where the world has become a very different one than ours. It is hot, very hot and has been that way as long as Devin can remember. He is one of the lucky ones as he and his grandfather live on a farm in a hidden idyllic oasis. While they had to work hard to keep up with the chores, life was good for them. When the grandfather suddenly dies, Devin must leave the safety of the hidden valley to find help to keep the farm going. What he finds instead is a nightmare of a society where children are left to their own devices and everyone has to lie, steal and cheat to survive. After a chance encounter with an older boy named Kit, the opportunity to escape the dark reality of the city to what sounds like paradise is offer him and he readily accepts. 

Devin soon finds out that Paradise is not all that it was promised to be in Tania Unsworth’s, The One Safe Place a thrilling adventure story for readers in grades 5-8.