Review: LEVIATHAN | Scott Westerfeld

Title: Leviathan

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Illustrator: Keith Thompson

Publisher: Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon and Schuster

Date of Publication: 2009

Pages: 440

Grade Levels: 6-9

Relevant curricula: English language arts, social studies

Bridge texts: WWI history, other World War literature, texts about Darwin and/or genetic engineering, other steampunk

Aleksandar (Alek) Ferdinand is the prince of Austria-Hungary, on the run after the assassination of his father, a peace-loving archduke, and his mother in Sarajevo. Because Alek’s mother was a commoner, Alek isn’t supposed to inherit anything from his family, especially his grandfather’s throne. Alek’s adversaries aren’t taking any chances and hunt him across Austria. His teacher-protectors have given up everything in order to protect Alek and get him to a secret hideout in Switzerland.

Deryn (a.k.a Dylan) Sharp is a British girl disguising herself as a boy to earn a position as a midshipman on one of his majesty’s airships. She has lost her father in a fiery accident. Deryn earns her spot on an airship, a Leviathan-class ship that gives this novel its name, but worries every day that her crewmates will discover her secret.

Europe is divided and on the brink of war. The year is 1914, but not the 1914 that you know from the history books.

Scott Westerfeld has created a steampunk, alternative WWI history in a world where Darwin discovered DNA (the threads of life) and gene splicing. Europe is divided among Darwinist countries, which employ genetic engineering to create incredible creatures to take place of their machines, and Clanker countries, which reject what they see as godless genetic tinkering in favor of engineering elaborate, diesel-driven machines.

Other elements: a heavy pile of gold bullion, a lady scientist with a mysterious cargo bound for Constantinople, flying jellyfish, talking lizards, walking tanks, a tasmanian tiger, and a lot of clart.

The story is fast-paced and exciting, cutting back and forth between the two main characters until they eventually run into each other on a glacier in Switzerland. The audience is privvy to just enough secrets to make us feel involved in the story, but not so many to ruin the excitement and suspense. I love that we don’t know which adults are trustworthy—if any. And I love the afterword, in which Westerfeld sorts out the real history leading up to WWI from his own inventions.

A great middle-grade to young-adult book and the first in a trilogy, followed by Behemoth, released in October 2010, and Goliath, scheduled for release in the fall of 2011.

FTC disclosure: I received this book in a Twitter contest from Simon & Schuster last summer and I’m passing it on to my ten year old. 

Reviewed by Dani Smith

Review: THE EDUCATION OF BET | Lauren Baratz-Logsted

TITLE: The Education of Bet

AUTHOR: Lauren Baratz-Logsted 

PUBLISHER: Houghton Mifflin

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2010

PAGES: 186

GRADE LEVEL(S): 6-7

RELEVANT CURRICULA: English Language Arts, Social Studies

CLASSROOM USES: Class reading, Literature Circles, Independent Reading

BRIDGE TEXTS: Any 19^th-century English literature

Life can hardly ever accurately be described as fair, but young Elizabeth Smith—better known as Bet—has most certainly gotten short shrift. Growing up in the 1800s, Bet had the unfortunate lot in life of being a female from a poor family. At the age of four, her parents were killed by typhoid. She was “rescued,” as it were by the great-uncle of another child, Will, whose parents had also died of the illness. This certainly was preferential to an orphanage, but such was Bet’s family’s social stature, that she could not exactly be treated as Will’s equal. Instead she became a sort of servant and attendant to the old man, while her contemporary was sent off to school.

As luck would have it, though, Will neither excelled at nor was very interested in school, and he was routinely being expelled from one of them or another. Will wanted to join the military. Bet wanted to go to school. They were the same age and, despite the obvious gender-related differences, looked strikingly similar. 

Thus Bet hatched her plan to dress herself as a boy, assume Will’s identity, and go to school for him. This way, they would both get what they wanted. Bet would have an education; Will would have freedom; and his great-uncle (not privy to the plan) would be satisfied that his young ward had finally succeeded in school. Nothing could go wrong. 

As people are wont to do, Bet had idealized what getting an education would truly be like, and she finds that school is not the academic haven she had expected.

Some of Bet’s challenges are predictable. She has to look, dress, and act like a boy. More troubling, she realizes, she has to live among boys. Even the best of disguises, however, cannot hide one’s true identity, and Bet has many more obstacles to face in passing herself off as a boy than she first anticipated. Ultimately, she is a young woman, with all the hormones and other trappings incumbent to them. 

The Education of Bet would make a fantastic read for many young girls, and quite possibly for quite a few young boys as well. Her story is intriguing, her character endearing, and the writing flows easily. Students will root for Bet in making her dream of an education come true, and they will root for her in other aspects of life, as well. 

And in the end, no one will be disappointed.



FTC Disclosure: This review is based on a copy of the book we received from the author.

Review: WHEN YOU REACH ME | Rebecca Stead

TITLE: When You Reach Me
AUTHOR: Rebecca Stead
PUBLISHER: Wally Lamb Books
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2009
PAGES: 208
GRADE LEVEL(S): 5-7
RELEVANT CURRICULA: English
CLASSROOM USES: Required reading, Summer/Independent reading, Literature Circles
BRIDGE TEXTS: A Wrinkle In Time


The first time I wrote anything--in fact, the only time I wrote anything--about When You Reach Me, I could hardly think of words to do the book justice. I quoted from commentary from Nancy Pearl on NPR (which was how I first learned about the book), and then wrote:

When You Reach Me is a wonderful descendant of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time; it never once even comes close to imitation, or cheap knock-offery.  No, it's the classiest of descendants--it's an evolution.

One of the most beautiful aspects of fantasy is how completely it takes the reader from her/his own world into that of the novel. What better way for students to learn first-hand of the magic of literature than by being transported to the planet Uriel? Or to Narnia? Or Middle-earth? Or Oz?


But Stead's novel takes place in New York City. (No doubt, NYC can be magical and unreal, but it's no outer space...) Miranda, Stead's protagonist, is a relatively normal girl, living in a relatively normal world, with the everyday drama that inhabits the world of every 11 year-old. 


The fantastical elements of When You Reach Me are subtler than magic or space travel. Stead's fantasy world is more mysterious than magical, as Miranda receives unexplained notes about events yet-to-happen in her life. Miranda is understandably skeptical; this could as easily be a prank as it is magic, and neither Miranda nor the reader has to take a huge leap of faith to feel that life is carrying on more or less as usual.


This fantasy-based-in-realism approach is sheer brilliance. By staying firmly rooted in real-world places and problems, Stead's novel will appeal to students who may already possess a bit of world-weary reluctance to get fully sucked into a novel. Any reader unwilling to blast into outer space will slowly but surely get sucked in by the bully on the block or the struggles of growing up with a single parent. But magic will just seep in, slowly but surely--and before long, When You Reach Me will make readers out of kids today in the same way that A Wrinkle In Time made readers of them in 1962.