Dark Life

Falls, Kat. Dark Life. Book 1 of the Dark Life series. 2010. 304p. ISBN 9780545178143. Available at FIC FAL on the library shelves.

Most of the land has been flooded under the rising water of melting polar cap, and now the remaining land is overcrowded. To remedy this situation, the continental shelf has been opened up for settlement. Ty is the first child born in one of the underwater settlements. Rumors have it that children who live in the water have developed strange abilities due to the water pressure and conditions. When asked, Ty claims that this is not the case.

Eking a living farming underwater, Ty’s family are part of the brave new crop of settlers who literally took the plunge. Relations between those who live above the water and those who live below are tense, due to poor government policies and a lack of understanding on both parties.

When Ty comes across a derelict submarine, he discovers a Topside girl in it. Gemma is a tourist from the mainland, looking for her brother who is prospecting down on the shelf. When outlaws, led by Shade, begin attacking the settlers, however, life suddenly becomes difficult. Before the outlaws would have seized government cargo, but now they’re dealing directly against the local settlers. This group of criminal is about to make life on the frontier unbearable, and Ty and Gemma are right in the way …

Fans of this story will also enjoy Inhuman by the same author. The story continues in Rip Tide.

Plastics

Sterngass, Jon and MAtthew Kachur. Plastics. 2006. 48p. ISBN 0-8368-5878-6. Available at 620.1 STE on the library shelves.

The modern age has been called many things, but the Age of Plastics seems to be the most appropriate name. Since the end of the Second World War, the number and variety of objects made of plastic has increased exponentially. Plastics now dominate the food industry, manufacturing, and clothing.

This short book describes the discovery of plastics and how, over a hundred years, this new material became ubiquitous in our lives. From raw chemicals and petroleum products, plastics allowed the expansion of the electric grid by covering and insulating the wires. They provided the underpinning to modern communications. They led to vastly improved manufacturing processes and moldings that could reliably create thousands of copies of the same item. They helped extend the life of food, created new medical products that will not rust or deteriorate, and increased the world’s standards of living.

Unfortunately, the capabilities that make plastic so amazing also create environmental problems. Plastics cannot degrade easily. They can be hard to dispose of. They create a sense that they can easily be thrown away if no longer needed.

Despite all of these flaws, plastics continue to change the world. The story of its discovery and many uses is fascinating.

Never Fall Down

McCormick, Patricia. Never Fall Down. 2012. 216p. ISBN 9780061730931. Available at FIC MCC on the library shelves.

Arn Chorn-Pond is a young orphan boy who lives with his aunt and his many siblings in Cambodia. The war in Vietnam has recently wrapped up, and the United States has abandoned the area. Despite hard living conditions and the lack of money, Arn leads a good life in his small village, and hopes to one day meet the Cambodian princess.

When the Khmer Rouge come to his village, however, life changes for the worse. Arn doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be an unwilling victim in the largest genocide since the Holocaust. The Khmer Rouge hope to rebuild an equal society without class, educational, or cultural distinctions, based on a robust peasant lifestyle. Everyone, from intellectuals and members of the former regime to bystanders who look the wrong way become victims, assassinated by a cold-blooded killing machine. Even the Khmer Rouge feed on each other, with leaders appearing and disappearing as quickly. Their broken and bankrupt ideology eventually causes over two million victims in a country of roughly 8 million people.

Arn and his family are escorted out of the village based on Khmer Rouge rumors that it will be bombed by the Americans. In three days, the Khmer Rouge say, we will be returning. But no one returns. People are forced to work on the land. At night, the enemies of the Khmer are massacred. Arn’s aunt tells him a piece of advice that saves his life: “Bend like the grass.”

Separated from his family, assigned to work in a camp where the conditions are terrible, Arn knows he has to lose himself in order to survive. The Khmer Rouge play tricks. They offer things, but if you accept them you are a negative influence and you are eliminated. But when a soldier asks the children at the camp if anyone plays music, Arn, who has never played music, volunteers. This decision saves his life.

Set in one of the worse time periods in history, Arn’s story of survival and courage under the most withering conditions is a testament that humanity can be beat down, but never killed. Fans of Holocaust fictions will appreciate this book and the positive message it ultimately carries. For a similar story in a different media, take a look at Jacob's story of a child soldier serving in the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group in Uganda, in War Brothers.

The Book Thief

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. 2005. 552p. ISBN 978-0-375-83100-3. Available on the library shelves at FIC ZUS as well as both an eBook and audiobook on Overdrive.

Entrusted to foster care, Liesel Meminger witnesses her brother die on the train taking both of them to a new family. This death marks her with nightmares about his vacant stare as he laid dead. More horrific, but less personal, is what the Nazis are about to inflict on Germany.

At 10 years old, Liesel cannot read, but her new foster father, Hans Hubermann, begins teaching her that words are powerful. Her foster mother is never hesitant with swears, call Liesel all sorts of name, but she means well. Having already stolen a book to replace her dead brother, Liesel becomes a book thief, stealing one book at a time and savoring all of its letters before moving on to the next one.

Her best friend, Rudy Steiner, wants to kiss her, but she stands up to him. She is not interested. The Hubermann family is poor and not very educated. But Hans and Rose love Liesel in their own way. Molching is a small town of no military interest save that it is on the road to Dachau. The beginning of the Second World War does not change life much for the Hubermanns, aside from jobs that slowly disappear as privations begin hitting everyone. But when Max Vanderburg, the Jewish son of the man who saved Hans from certain death during the First World War shows up on their doorstep, seeking refuge, their very lives become endangered. Harboring a Jew could mean their death.

Liesel becomes attached to Max, however, who lives in the basement, and as the tides of defeat encircle Germany, her small world becomes even more difficult. With bombs falling from the skies, Jews being walked through town, and Death hovering nearby and harvesting souls, the book thief will need more than courage to survive this ordeal.

Cattle Ranching in the American West

Steele, Christy. Cattle Ranching in the American West. 2005. 48p. ISBN 0-8368-5787-9. Available at 636.2 STE on the library shelves.

When Christopher Columbus first lands in America, he discovers that there are neither horses nor cattle. So on his next trip he brings both. The availability of large open spaces and excellent foraging areas encourage the growth of both populations.

As colonists expanded on the continent, cows and horses went before them, and soon wild cattle and horses were everywhere. Thus evolved a new type of estate, the ranch or haciendia, and a new profession, the vaquero. First these vaqueros, who worked with the cattle, were slaves and indentured servants. But soon enough, with the push by Americans through Texas and what was then Northern Mexico, the vaqueros were transformed into cowboys.

Despite popular representation, cowboys were very low on the social order and worked very hard for meager earnings. Driving cattle from Texas and the Southwest United States to markets in California and the Midwest, they lived dangerous and isolated life.

The history of cattle ranching mirrors the society of the time, and was affected by ups and downs in the fortunes of the United States but eventually fulfilled the Manifest Destiny predicted by American Founders.

Egg and Spoon

Maguire, Gregory. Egg and Spoon. 2014. 475p. ISBN 9780763672201. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Life in Tsarist Russia is hard, harder than most places. For peasants living in hovels in small villages sprinkled in the middle of nowhere, it is even more the case. Elena Rudina has never been outside the boundaries of her village. Now a teen of about 15, she must take care of her sick mother. Her father drowned a few years ago, her younger brother is indentured to the local Baron who has moved to Moscow due to food shortages in the area, and her older brother has just been recruited by the Tsar’s army to dig ditches in St. Petersburg. Elena struggles to survive and find enough food for herself and her mother. Thankfully, old doctor Peter Petrovich provides some humor in an otherwise drab land.

The unexpected always happens, however, and in Russia every peasant knows that despite how bad things are, they can always get worse. When a train pulls in on the disaffected line, Elena’s life irreversibly changes. She meets the Tsar, dressed in a white uniform. But he turns out to be a butler. The train has stopped because the bridge further down the track is out. Onboard is every type of food imaginable, as well as a girl whose looks are very similar to Elena, aside from the fact that she’s an aristocrat. Ekaterina is traveling with her great aunt to St. Petersburg so she can make her debut at the Tsar’s great ball, and even meet the Tsar’s nephew. She carries a Fabergé egg crafted especially for the Tsar.

Through this short stop, Elena and Kat get to know each other a little, but through circumstances they exchange places. Elena now finds herself hurling towards St. Petersburg and the chance to ask the Tsar to release her brother from service so he can return home. Kat, for her part, is left stranded in the middle of nowhere with not enough local lore to be able to survive long in this hostile environment.

Thus begins a most amazing adventure featuring matryoshka dolls, snow soldiers, talking cats, ice dragons, and probably the best character in the book, the famed Baba Yaga, the Russian witch whose house is equipped with chicken legs and travels by itself. Elena, Kat, and Baba Yaga must pull their resources and wits together to solve a danger that threatens the very nature of Mother Russia. A fable with improbable characters, Egg and Spoon takes a train ride through Tsarist Russia exploring some of its myths and legends.

Fans of fantastic fiction will enjoy this book, and should take a look at Far Far Away, a book with similar themes of self discovery.

Soldier X

Wulffson, Don. Soldier X. 2001. 240p. ISBN 9780142500736. Available at FIC WUL on the library shelves.

At sixteen, Erik Brandt has never known a Germany without the Nazis. After five years of total warfare, the country is bleeding soldiers and is being pushed on all fronts by the Allies. Teens must now step in the shoes of older men and join the front hoping to slow down the Russians. Drafted in 1944, he doesn’t receive enough training, and practice shooting is limited due to ammunition shortages. Shipped to the Eastern Front, Erik finds himself surrounded by death and destruction. During his first battle, Erik is wounded and left behind enemy lines.

Lucky for him, his grandparents emigrated from Russia to Germany back in the 1920s, and he speaks fluent Russian with many of the idioms. When regaining consciousness, he grabs the uniform of a Russian soldier that looks like him and shambles back from the battlefield towards the Russian rear. Taken to a field hospital, he meets fifteen years old Tamara, a nurse who helps him recover. But at any time Erik, feigning amnesia, could be discovered. His very life depends on not making a single mistake. But in the torment of war, a slip up is only a whisper away. Where do his allegiance lay? Can Erik survive the war?

Sixteen-year-old Erik Brandt barely knows what Germany is fighting for when he is drafted into Hitler's army in 1944. Sent to the killing fields of the Eastern Front, he is surrounded by unimaginable sights, more horrific than he ever thought possible. It's kill or be killed, and it seems clear that Erik's days are numbered. Until, covered in blood and seriously injured, he conceives of another way to survive. Filled with gritty and visceral detail, Soldier X will change the way every reader thinks about the reality of war.