Icebreaker

Gr 5–8—Come aboard the Oyster, a ship that has been sailing a frozen ocean for 300 years. Its mission is to survive the global reign of the Anti-Machinists who have destroyed everything mechanical and all knowledge that goes along with it. Life on the vagabond ship has evolved into a tense society of tribes separated by job function but united against the outside world. Only 12-year-old Petrel, dismissed as "Nothing Girl," doesn't fit in anywhere and has only two talking rats, Mister Smoke and Missus Slink, as friends. When a boy found on an ice floe is taken on board, his suspicious presence upsets the crew, but Petrel is determined to protect the stranger, whom she names Fin. But it's no accident that Fin was found there. Can he be trusted? And who is the Oyster's "sleeping captain"? A carefully structured plot foreshadows the dramatic climax and reveals secrets at just the right time, keeping readers engaged throughout. Tanner's evocative prose allows readers to feel every dark, noisy crevice of the ship as well as the chill of the frozen wasteland that surrounds it. Unique, fully realized characters add cross-gender appeal.