recommended by AP English listserv

FROM AMAZON: A gripping and beautifully written dystopian page-turner from New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist ALLEGRA GOODMAN.

In the eighteenth glorious year of Enclosure, long after The Flood, a young girl named Honor moves with her parents to Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea. Life on the tropical island is peaceful—there is no sadness and no visible violence in this world. Earth Mother and her Corporation have created New Weather. The sky is always blue and it almost never rains. Every family fits into its rightful, orderly, and predictable place…

Except Honor’s. Her family does not follow the rules. They ignore curfew, sing songs, and do not pray to Earth Mother. Honor doesn’t fit in with the other children at the Old Colony School. Then she meets Helix, a boy with a big heart who slowly helps her uncover a terrible secret about the Island: Sooner or later, those who do not fit disappear, and they don’t ever come back.

Honor knows her family could be next, and when the unthinkable happens, she must make the dangerous journey to the Other Side of the Island—before Earth Mother comes for her too…

Compelling as a story, but not particularly chilling or persuasive as a potential future. ( )

A bit slow. ( )

In [The Other Side of the Island] the author[Allegra Goodman] gives us a very interesting take on our possible future. The Corporation and Earth Mother are building the Enclosure over the (now flooded) Earth to protect the people. The question is at what cost does this protection come and what are you willing to sacrifice?

The book was an excellent read and as the author intended left me with questions. I will be highly recommending this book to my students. ( )