BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
This week marks the publication of DustRoad by Tom Huddleston, the sequel to the gripping post-apocalyptic adventure FloodWorld.
These stories are set centuries in the future, in a world reeling from the effects of climate change. Read on for our review of FloodWorld and details of a giveaway of the new sequel, then head over to author Tom’s guest booklist featuring 5 books for children who love sci-fi.
Review: FloodWorld
For readers who love exciting action-packed adventure stories and films, FloodWorld is perfect. It is full of tense cliffhangers, thrilling chase scenes and hairbreadth escapes as two children, Kara and Joe, fight to confound a ruthless pirate plot.
Imagine London in the future, when rising sea levels have submerged half of the city. Privileged citizens live in the central zone, protected by a huge wall. Meanwhile the less fortunate scrape a living in The Shanties, a squalid area of flooded tower blocks and rickety boardwalks. In this fractured world, the only thing that unites the inhabitants from inside and outside the wall is their fear of a different race: The Mariners.
Shanty children Kara and Joe find themselves embroiled in a world of danger. As they struggle first to escape and then to protect their neighbourhood, they are forced to confront their prejudices and discover that the world is more complicated than they thought.
FloodWorld is pacily written with lots of easy-to-read dialogue which is interleaved with more challenging and descriptive language, making it a good book for moving children on to more demanding reads. Kara provides a strong female role model: clever, courageous and tough, but warm and honest too.
The book could work well either as a recommended read-for-pleasure or a whole class read. Behind the gripping action sequences lie thought-provoking themes of climate change, environmental responsibility, truth, prejudice and power. If you are teaching pupils about the environment, you could use this book to introduce the implications of rising sea levels or the importance of marine conservation. For PSHE, it raises questions about how we view people from unfamiliar societies and whether violence is ever justified. In geography, it could provide a quirky take on the topography of London.
The narrative of FloodWorld also has a very cinematic feel, which is not surprising for a writer who used to be a film critic. I really enjoyed this gripping read and I am looking forward to recommending it at school.
Reviewer: Louisa Farrow
You can order FloodWorld and DustRoad online or from your local bookshop or library.
Look out for a Review Panel review of the sequel, DustRoad, coming soon on the blog, too!
Guest Post
Click here to read Tom Huddleston’s guest booklist featuring 5 books for children who love sci-fi.
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***Book Giveaway!***
Thanks to the publishers at Nosy Crow, we have a SIGNED copy of DustRoad to give away to one of our followers.
To enter, follow @booksfortopics and RT the giveaway tweet. The giveaway closes 11.59pm 18th March (UK) – terms and conditions here.
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You can order FloodWorld and DustRoad online or from your local bookshop or library.
Many thanks to the publishers at Nosy Crow for sending us a review copy and to Tom for providing the guest post. Check out the other stops on the blog tour, too.
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Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
