London Eye

Gr 9 Up–Ever since the terrorist attack on London two years earlier, life has been anything but normal for 17-year-old Jack and his younger sister, who live on the outskirts of the city. With their parents presumed dead, Jack has had to grow up fast and learn how to care for Emily. His friends, Lucy-Anne, Sparky, and Jenna, also experienced loss in some form. The government insists that the city is a wasteland, full of mutant monsters, and that access in and out is strictly denied. The friends don’t believe the government’s lies, so when an older woman, Rosemary, comes looking for them, claiming to be from inside London, they feel compelled to follow her back in to see for themselves the reality of the situation. What they experience is far more terrifying and bizarre than they had imagined. Some inhabitants did survive and they developed special powers and skills. Always on the run, the survivors are hunted by the vicious Choppers, who conduct brutal experiments on them when captured. Jack and his friends must first stay alive and then figure out how to tell the truth to the rest of the world. This is the first title in what promises to be a gripping series depicting a near-future England in the throes of a postapocalyptic disaster. Lebbon tells a grim tale, made a bit lighter by the well-developed friendship among the teens and the devoted relationship between Jack and his sister.-Ragan O’Malley, Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn, NY