Katya’s World by Jonathan Howard - OPTIONAL

Howard, Jonathan L. Katya’s World, 329 pgs. Strange Chemistry, 2012. Language: PG (8 swears, 0 ‘f’, 0 god); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG-13; 

A hundred years ago, a group of people left Earth to find another world.  What they found was a world covered in water overflowing with many resources and minerals.  Their intention wasn’t to stay but to get what they needed and then find another, more suitable, world.  But in the end, they did stay and named it Russalka.  Katya has lived in Russalka her whole life and considers it her home.  She is training to apprentice as a navigator on her uncle’s boat, and is getting ready to set out on her first voyage.  When the ship is commandeered by the Federal Security Guard to transport a prisoner to another location, they are ordered to take an alternate route through unchartered waters, but things don’t go as planned, the ship is damaged, and Katya and her crew are stranded.  Help comes along from an unlikely source – pirates.  Katya and her crew find themselves working alongside the pirates to survive whatever is tracking them in the water.  

This was an enjoyable story that might be appealing to your science fiction fans.  It was clean; the action and the pace were good, and there were only a few times when it got bogged down with all the technical stuff that can be found in science fiction.  Also, being the first book in a series, students might appreciated knowing the second book is already out.   

MS/HS – OPTIONAL. Reviewer: RB