FINISHED:

Westerfeld, Scott. (2009). Leviathan. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[My ACL review posted here soon. I LOVED it, though.

After Prince Alek’s parents, Archduke Ferdinand and Princess Sophie, are murdered in Serbia he is whisked away by fellows of the court for safety purposes aboard a metal walking machine. Meanwhile, a girl named Deryn poses as a boy, Dylan, so that she may join the Air Service and fly aboard the Leviathan, an organic, hydrogen powered, genetically created whale-beast. Alek and Deryn’s parallel stories finally converge (halfway through the novel) when the Leviathan crashes on a mountain glacier near the outpost castle where Alek is being hidden away from possible assassins, and both have a secret about their true identities to keep from each other. This is an alternate take on the events surrounding WWI wherein this time, in addition to war breaking out between countries, there is a divide between the Clankers, who rely on man-made oil and metal war machines, and the Darwinists, who have aircraft and vehicles born of genetically combined and modified beasts. In the end, Westerfeld has Alek and the other Clankers, and Deryn and the other Darwinists, being forced to combine their efforts and their machines while leaving plenty of unanswered details (such as some mysterious eggs that the Darwinists are keeping safe) for further installments of a planned series. Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series (Thorndike, 2005-2008) has constructed a richly detailed steampunk world with vivid action sequences to match, and it’s all augmented by Keith Thompson’s intricate illustrations. This one has great crossover appeal for boys, girls, and fans of science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction – and all will be hungry for Westerfeld’s next tome in this exciting new series.]

STARTED:
North, Joan. (1965). The cloud forest. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

[Recommended as a classic favorite by a colleague.]

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