Wilderness Survival Booklist

This week’s list topic: wilderness survival.  Growing up, I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time in the woods, which fueled my imagination.  Wandering through the forest behind my house, skiing in the mountains in New Hampshire, hiking in the presidential range with my parents, I’d always wonder: what if…

What if something went wrong?  What if I had to survive on these snowy slopes overnight?  What if I got lost in these mountains and had to spend months out here, alone, trying to find my way back.  What if my friend and I wandered too far off the beaten path on our explorations?  What happens next?

It’s that question that fuels every great story, including those on my list of Best Wilderness Survival Fiction.  While I adore each of these books, I also recognize that the list is woefully short, something I hope to remedy soon with the titles that follow the “official list.”  The wilderness presents endless possible answers to that question: What if...?  These are just a few.

Best Wilderness Survival Fiction

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen

Island of Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong

The Cay by Theodore Taylor

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Also, here are a few books in this genre that are on my (ever-expanding) list of soon-to-read: Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson and A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer.

NaNoWriMo

I interrupt my normally scheduled book reviews for this quick announcement: National Novel Writing Month starts in just five days.  While reading novels is, of course, positively wonderful, writing novels can be even better.  So if you’re a reader, you might think about trying to write a novel, and there’s no better time to start than November 1^st, the beginning of NaNoWriMo.  Orhan Pamuk—one of my favorite writers, though he’s not in the YA genre—once compared writing a novel to walking through a house.  When you’re reading a novel, you sometimes wonder, What’s going on in that room?  The cool thing about writing a novel, is that you get to walk (or run, or sneak, or fly…) into that room and see what’s happening there.  It’s a book you’re reading as it’s being created.  Your eyes are the first to read those words; your mind is the first to see those images.  It’s a journey that’s worth starting, as you never know what adventures lie ahead until you pick up the pen. 

If you’re a young writer, check out all the great stuff at NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program website.  Happy writing!

THE LOST CONSPIRACY

A friend who knows my interest in YA books encouraged me to read The Lost Conspiracy based on a radio recommendation she heard.  I ordered the book, and I must confess that when it arrived, I was a little daunted by its sheer heft.  At 568 pages, this hardcover book had the approximate weight and appearance of a brick.  But all wariness fell away once I started to read.

In The Lost Conspiracy, Francis Hardinge practices the art of world-building at its finest.  She constructs an elaborate island-world populated by many different groups, not all of whom consider each other equal.  Among the groups who live on Gullstruck Island is a race of Lost, those who can leave their bodies and go out into the world, invisible explorers who navigate with their senses.  These Lost have a special school they attend (without their bodies), and they serve as the primary communicators of the island, delivering messages across jungles and beaches, over volcanoes and through towns.  But when all of the Lost suddenly die—or at the very least seem to permanently leave their bodies—questions arise and chaos ensues.  Everyone’s looking for someone to blame, and their suspicions naturally land on the one Lost still alive: a teenaged girl named Arilou.  Conveniently for her accusers, Arilou is not only the last Lost alive, but she’s also a Lace: a member of the most despised race on the island.

The book’s protagonist is Hathin.  Other than being Arilou’s sister, Hathin’s most notable characteristic is her invisibility: no one ever notices her.  This invisibility hides a girl of incredible strength and perseverance, qualities she needs when she finds herself with few friends on Gullstruck Island, fleeing with her sister who may—or may not—be the last surviving Lost.

Words I’d choose to characterize Hardinge’s novel include lush, rich, and complex.  Once the reader’s oriented to Gullstruck’s complicated geography and politics, that reader’s taken for a fantastical ride through a world populated not only by the Lost, but by elephant birds and deadly blissing beatles, messenger pigeons and shipwrecks and vast ashlands reserved for dead ancestors.  Hardinge makes the reader see this world in all its complexity through her deft descriptions of the land.  Here, Hathin and Lohan stand in the shadow of one of the island’s most formidable volcanoes, one that has its own stories and—seemingly—its own personality: “Above them the King of Fans trailed her mourning black, at their feet the orchids rocked with silent laughter, and beside them gaped a hissing gulf of darkness.  There was no comfort for either of them.” (141) 

Later, Hardinge captures the treetop world of the revengers—a groups of islanders who’ve dedicated their lives to the cause of revenge against those who have wronged them: a group marked by the half-butterfly tattoos on their forearms: “Up through an airy world of gently swaying branches, then into a dense cloud of tapering leaves that slithered over her skin.  The moon’s rays arrived piecemeal and cat’s-eye green through the foliage.” (221)

While Hardinge’s craftsmanship is evident in her descriptions, the story goes deeper than the vast landscapes, deeper than the edge-of-your-seat adventure or the thought-provoking political allegory.  At its heart, The Lost Conspiracy is about believing in something that you have no evidence for, fighting your doubts, and finding your own heroic qualities, even when the whole world seems to be against you.  It’s a complicated and beautifully-written novel, one that made me look forward to what Francis Hardinge does next.

(Hardinge, Francis.  The Lost Conspiracy. New York: HarperCollins: 2009.)

For Love and For Football: Modern Warfare at TROY HIGH

I read The Iliad a long time ago, back in high school, and while the details are a little foggy, I don’t remember having nearly as much fun as I did when I read the new version of Homer’s ancient saga: Troy High.  Shana Norris, the author of this updated epic, first studied Greek mythology in seventh grade, and in her author’s note she writes that, “The Helen of Troy story in particular has interested [her].”  She explains,

I had always wondered how Helen felt, being taken from her home and family and then having so many people die while trying to win her back.  How did all the other people who found themselves sucked into the battle feel?  I always knew I wanted to tell my own story about Helen of Troy, but it wasn’t until I started plotting out Troy High that I figured out how I wanted to tell it. (258)

Troy High’s Helen is Elena, a beautiful cheerleader who’s forced to transfer from Lacede High to Troy High when school district lines are re-drawn.  Lacede High and Troy High are “legendary” rivals, a fact the board of education failed to consider when it forces a handful of Lacede students to transfer across enemy lines, including Elena Argos.  Elena befriends the novel’s protagonist, Cassie, who tells the story as she moves from the position of outsider to insider.  Cassie witnesses the escalation of the Lacede-Troy rivalry from a unique position: her best friend Greg is a sophomore at Lacede; her two older brothers are football stars at Troy.  Oh, and when Elena shifts schools, she shifts boyfriends, moving from Lacede football standout Lucas to Cassie’s brother Perry.  To make everything more complicated for Cassie, Lucas is Greg’s older brother.

The novel begins, “It was a late Sunday afternoon when I kissed my best friend.”  It might have been difficult enough for Cassie to sort out her feelings for Greg without a war led by their two older brothers, a war they’re both pulled into, a war that forces them to choose between their families and each other.

Troy High moves ancient wars onto modern playing fields: high school football fields specifically.  These old wars seem right at home on their new turf.  It’s a novel about pride and romance, popularity and individuality, love and loyalty.  Some themes keep returning to us crossing seas of time and place.  Reading Troy High forces us to wonder if perhaps the world hasn’t changed as much as it sometimes seems.  Perhaps Agamemnon, Paris, Hector, Melelaus, Achilles, Odysseus and Helen aren’t just characters in some distant, dusty text.  Perhaps they’re alive and well at your high school.

(Norris, Shana.  Troy High.  New York: Amulet Books, 2009.) 

Surviving the Storm: The Great Wide Sea

Hatchet.  My Side of the Mountain.  Island of the Blue Dolphins.  I’ve been waiting for a great survival story to arrive, following in the footsteps of these classics.  So when I saw The Great Wide Sea on the shelves of a Bainbridge Island bookstore, I snapped it up and went for a sail.

What would you do if, in the wake of tragedy, your father announced that you’re going to sell your house, get rid of nearly all of your possessions, move aboard a thirty-foot-long sailboat, and head out to the islands of Bermuda?  The Great Wide Sea is the debut novel of M.H. Herlong, and it follows three brothers—Ben, Dylan, and young Jerry—on a wild ride through the Atlantic Ocean, from the Bahamas to the seas south of Bermuda.  I grew up sailing, and Herlong’s passion for all things sail is evident from the first chapter.  (According to the author note, he’s sailed many of the areas where the story takes place.)

If you’re thinking that life without classrooms and cars and computers sounds pretty nice…well, the beginning of the trip does have many idyllic moments:

At one island, we gathered lobster just like the Bahamians did.  At another, we watched sharks cruising after a fishing boat.  At another, we found a coconut and ate it…Each island was small and perfect.  Each one was our anchorage for days and days.” (115)

But all the while a conflict between Ben and his father is simmering, and occasionally erupting.  Both of them are reeling from the sudden death of Ben’s mom, and Ben’s increasingly frustrated with his father’s erratic and dictatorial behavior.  But it’s the disappearance of the boys’ father one night in the middle of the ocean that really sets the novel in motion.  The three brothers must survive a wicked storm, a shipwreck, and life on an island somewhere in the Bahamas.

It’s the combination of these conflicts—the clashes with his dad, the loss of his mom, the storm, the shipwreck, the suffering of his brothers he’s powerless to alleviate—that nearly drives Ben over the edge.  But The Great Wide Sea is as much about pressing on as about the struggle.  As Ben explains,

The thing about life is that it goes on.  You wake up and there is the sun like always.  There is your own body with bad breath and bruises and a headache.  You have to pee.  You have to get a drink.  No matter what happened the day before, you wake up and there is life and you have to do something about it. (173)

This paragraph gets to the root of any great survival story.  It’s not just about surviving the elements, it’s about surviving all the other twists life might throw at you.  Maybe that’s why survival stories will always hold an important place in literature.  They remind us of our power to be extraordinary, to find courage when we feel emptied and battered, to rise above any of the storms life may throw at us, whatever form they may take.

(Herlong, M.H.  The Great Wide Sea.  New York: Puffin Books, 2010.)

Airborn Adventure

The Alaska Battle of the Books list is out, and I'm thrilled to see one of my favorite recent adventures at the top of the list: Kenneth Oppel's Airborn.  Airborn has a perfect mix of realism and fantasy, with plenty of action to keep the story moving and the pages turning.  Oppel invites readers to join Matt Cruse aboard a ship as it sails through...the sky!  If you read this novel you'll get a chance to tour a magnificent airship, explore a mysterious island, hang out with swashbuckling pirates, and meet a passenger with a mission.  The characters are complex--no one's purely good or purely evil--but it's the plot that makes it stand out; once I started, I couldn't put it down.  In addition to writing a full-throttled adventure story, Oppel has created a fantastic website to accompany his novel, complete with newspaper articles and virtual tours of the airship.  Oppel asks that classic story-starting question: What if... and provides a vivid, rollicking answer in the form of this novel.  Chances are that if you begin Airborn, you won't soon put it down.

The Fantasy Booklist

Sometimes, the best thing about fantasy is how close it comes to the truth. 

I’m using a broad definition of fantasy for this list, including some high fantasy and some dark dystopian novels.  Without further commentary or explanation, here are some of my favorites…

His Dark Materials Series by Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Dune by Frank Hebert

The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge

Uglies by Scott Westefeld

The Giver by Lois Lowry