Author: The McKissacks
Pages: 165 to the story and several pages about the book that very interesting
Cybil Book #31
Summary from inside the jacket sleeve
The Cyborg Wars are over and Earth has peacefully prospered for more than one hundred years. Yet sometimes history must repeat itself until humanity learns from its mistakes. In the year 2170, despite technological and political advances, cyborgs and clones are treated no better than slaves, and an underground abolitionist movement is fighting for freedom. Thirteen-year-old Leanna's entire life is thrown into chaos when The World Federation of Nations discovers her mom is part of the radical Liberty Bell Movement.
After her mother's arrest for treason, Leanna must escape as she is chased by a ruthless bounty hunter. Soon Leanna finds herself living among the Firsts, and nothing will ever be the same again. But what does The World Federation want with the daughter of a traitor? So much is uncertain. Danger hides everywhere. Fear takes over. With help from unlikely sources, Leanna learns the origin of The Liberty Bell Movement and how its members may have answers about her past-and her new reality.
As family secrets are revealed, Leanna must face startling truths about self-identity and freedom. Through time travel, advanced technologies, and artificial intelligence, this exhilarating adventure asks what it means to be human and explores the sacrifices an entire society will make to find out.
My Thoughts
I went out on the Internet and read the reviews of others as I was trying to get a feel for the thoughts about this book. I was rather surprised at the polar viewpoints of this book. I will start off by stating that I really got into this book. I really enjoyed the topic, theme, setting, etc. There are many people who feel this book was a letdown. I read through their ideas and many of them had thoughts that I pondered myself. Overall, I give this book thumbs up because I really feel that my upper elementary and 6th grade students would really like this book.
The things I liked about this book was the simple flow of the story. Yes, sentences were short and at times choppy, but I breezed through this book because I could not stop reading. Yes, I wanted more action and not just a telling of events, but it still held my interest. I really dug how they intertwined historical events with the future. I did not even think about the 3/5 human aspect of the cyborgs as a representation of the slavery laws when they were treated as 3/5 of a person. The back of the book really shed some light into the clever historical contexts woven throughout. I think this book does a nice job bringing up the concept of equality and past events to a relevant and engaging world for students to enjoy. It really makes you stop and think about the treatment of others as Leanna learns the hard way.
I am very excited for the next book, The Cyborg Clones, and will be reading this book when it comes out. I know not everyone agrees with these views, but I thought this was a good book. I know we have to give credit to students for their brainpower and decision making, but for every kid who would dislike the flaws of mentioning "aliens" for no real purpose or poor sentence structure, there are kids who just want a good story that reads quick and fast. This book delivers to the latter.
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