Reader: Mr. Pounds

Readers who have read this book:
Owen S.
Caleb W.
Mrs. Martin
Mrs. Minier
Jason T.
Mr. Lowe
Nick W.
Daniel S.
Nelson L.
Samantha P.

Mr. Schlemmer
Amber E.
Ashley S.
Laura G.

Available: Throughout the day in the hallway office beside the HOT Lab.

Why I like this book: When I was teaching in a remote area of Northern Ontario twenty years ago, Ojibway Indian students recommended this book to me . In many ways, that small community of seventy-five was much like the setting of this book. We had no telephones, heated only with wood, and had few modern conveniences. The community was very religious and conservative. Our only electricity was a generator. It felt like I took a step back in time . . . or perhaps as this book suggests, a step into the future.

Summary:

Wyndham inaugurated the persecuted mutants coming-of-age idea with The Chrysalids decades before the X-Men. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future with an all-too-believable religion in which biological norms are the measure of virtue. (A passage of preachiness from a progressive mutant near the end of the book provided the inspiration and principal lyrics for Jefferson Airplane's song "Crown of Creation.") Except for the ending, the story has excellent pacing and credible characters. It's not a monumental work of literature, but it holds up after half a century.

Source: librarything.com