Saturday, April 25, 2015

Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall - ADVISABLE

McDougall, Sophia Mars Evacuees, 404 pages.  Harper, 2015.  $17.  Mature Content: G; Language: G; Violence: PG (mild between kids when the adults vanish).

For their own safety, Alice and other kids are being evacuated to Mars, where they will also become cadets in the Exo-Defense Force which is desperately trying to rid Earth of the Morrors - invisible beings which have taken over the Earth’s poles and are slowing bringing on a new Ice Age.  The children are alternately ordered around by Colonel Cleaver, who is determined to turn them into model cadets, and Goldfish, the programmed floating bot which takes care of them the rest of the time.  When the adults are disappear to answer a distress call from one of the other Mars bases, chaos reigns at the school.  Alice and a few others escape the brutality by hijack a vehicle and Goldfish follows along.  They are determined to find their way to another base and get help.  

OMG - McDougall is hilarious!  Except for the part where the kids become Lord-of-the-Flies-ish (no one dies, but there is a lot of yelling), the book is really about courage and friendship and understanding each other.  I laughed and cheered.  

EL - OPTIONAL, MS - ADVISABLE.  CIndy, Middle School Librarian, MLS.

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