Ship Breaker

I am always looking for the next book to put into someone's hands who can't get over the fast-paced, adventure of The Hunger Games. Similar plot lines have been written, female archer fighting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Yet, it is not one of these books which I put into the hands of these book lovers, but rather the 2010 Printz winning novel, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. With a dose of Treasure Island like adventure/survival, a dash of Hunger Games apocalyptic intrigue, a pinch of Dickens coming-of-age, and a whole lot of originality, Ship Breaker is a timeless story.

On the American Gulf coast, Nailer lives in a ship-breaking beach community. From a young age, children are trained in how to strip an old ship of all of its useful materials. It's dirty, risky and dangerously competitive. Nailers luck seems to have changed when he finds a “swank” boat washed up after a huge storm. Inside the boat, however, is a girl- A girl who could get in the way of his fortune if kept alive. This book sparks questions of ethical “what would you do's?” in a future world not un-like our own. Teens will be interested to find that ship-breaking is occurring in some impoverished coastal communities!

Reviewed by Erin Reifsnider
Young Adult Coordinator

Pegasus National Bestselling Author: Robin McKinley

YA SF MCK

I enjoy reading fantasy fiction written for all ages. Robin Mckinley is one of my favorite writers. In the past I have read the 1998 Phoenix Award honor book, Beauty: a Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, the 1985 Newbery Medal winner The Hero and the Crown and a 1983 Newbery Honor book, The Blue Sword, both about the magical country of Damar. Just recently I bought and quickly devoured Robin McKinley’s novel, Sunshine, that had won the 2004 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. I then placed on hold Pegasus at my library when I realized we had a copy here.

I have discovered that Robin McKinley always excels at creating a well-developed fantasy realm. In her Wikipedia biography Robin grew up as an only child with a father in the United State Navy. She moved around frequently and read copiously. She remembers events, places, and time periods by what books she read where. She read the Chronicles of Narnia for the first time in New York and the Lord of the Rings for the first time in Japan.

Many of her strong heroines reflect qualities that the she saw in herself as a young woman: clumsiness, plainness, bookishness, and disinterest in the usual social games that involve flirting and dating. She believes that most girls go through a time growing up when they believe they are in fact lost princesses, switched at birth. Biographer Marilyn H. Karrenbrock stated, “McKinley’s females do not simper, they do not betray their own nature to win a man’s approval. But neither do they take love lightly or put their own desires before anything else. In McKinley’s books, the romance, like the adventure, is based upon ideals of faithfulness, duty, and honor.” I found her animal characters to be memorable well-detailed, intelligent individuals.

In this novel, Pegasus, Princess Sylvi is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday as part of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi. Amazingly, Sylvi and Ebon are able to communicate and truly understand each other, without relying on specially trained “speaker” magicians to translate. Secretly, Ebon introduced petite Sylvi to the joys of flying at night on his back. He also arranged for Sylvi to visit his homeland and to see the pegasi caves as a special 16th birthday gift. Alliance rules normally only allow the pegasi to visit the humans country. As a result of the rare three-week life-changing visit, Sylvi becomes her nation’s pegasi expert. But she is unsure of how to share what she has experienced and learned as the unique closeness of the bond between Sylvi and Ebon seems to threaten the peaceful status quo--and possibly the future safety of their two nations.

At the end of Pegasus I was left with many questions. A disgraced, power hungry “speaker” magician, Fthoom, uncovers an historical parchment document about the reign of King Ascur II, during which there was an invasion of enemy forces made up of taralians, norindours, ladons and wyverns, led by rocs. Supposedly, rocs speak truth when dying. The parchment recorded that a dying roc was overheard crying out, “the blood and breath of each [race] is poisonous to the other” over time, and the bodies of your two races “are dying of it” as the ties grow closer together. Was Fthoom lying? Many in the king’s Court fear that the two nations may not survive the escalating violent, border attacks by these old enemies again --especially if the growing bond between Sylvi and Ebon and other human-pegasi partnerships are allowed to flourish. Are the magicians holding back key information or doing things that hold back and/or jeopardize a closer, more equitable relationship between the two nations?

Regrettably I must wait almost a year for the publication of Pegasus II in 2012 to discover if the friendship of Sylvi and Ebon will end or survive in the face of the impending crisis facing their nations.

Meanwhile, I plan to read some of Robin McKinley’s other titles. I’ve got her books, Chalice and Dragonhaven, on my “to read” list. She is married to author Peter Dickinson. I may also explore the two short story collections they wrote together, Fire and Water. I look forward to many more hours of great fantasy reading.

What authors have you enjoyed reading over the years? Who has always produced a good read time and again? I plan to explore a few of my favorites with you soon. Until then, enjoy reading.

Ann Zydek
Library Director