Whose Got Your Back?

How goes the week everyone?

For my own part, this week has been incredibly busy. Between helping at some after school programs and filling in for my coworkers, I haven’t had a time to sit down at work. But, more about that on Friday. As far as my book blurt goes, I just got done reading Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi about five minutes ago.

While I was working on Teens and Technology, I realized that I hadn’t read many award winning young adult novels. I wanted to read a few of them at least, so I decided to start with Ship Breaker, which won the Michael L. Printz award this year.

Ship Breaker is set in a futuristic time where terrible hurricanes have forever changed topography, weather, and oil lanes. We are introduced to Nailer, a guy in his mid-teens who climbs through tight spaces on abandoned ships for a few pieces of precious metal. He’s part of a crew of other young people who on salvaging crews to stay alive. For Nailer, everything is survival, loyalty to his crew, and making a couple dollars. That is, until he finds a “swank” on a downed clipper. Clippers are a rare find, especially one with this much salvage. But, Nailer can’t just grab the gold and go his way, because the owner of the vessel is still alive and needs help. She promises that her father will pay if Nailer keeps her safe, which obviously puts Nailer in a tight spot.

Should he protect this “swank” who looks down on him like a dog? Should he go against his father? Is she just a dollar sign or is she something more? Through the book, Nailer has to question what he wants to fight for, who he wants to be loyal to, and how he is possibly going to stay alive. He also has to question what it means to have a family.

There is some violence and some cussing in this book, but that is to be expected. The futuristic setting is very hard and it makes for some very hard and ruthless people. Nailer gets into several life and death situations, and he has to depend on the fates and his smarts to get him through. The intense and interesting writing style keeps the pages turning, and I really enjoyed it!