September 24, 2013

Title: Sky Jumpers

Author: Peggy Eddelman

Series: Sky Jumpers #1

Genre: Young Reader

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: What happens when you can’t do the one thing that matters most? Twelve-year-old Hope Toriella lives in White Rock, a town of inventors struggling to recover from the green bombs of World War III. But Hope is terrible at inventing and would much rather sneak off to cliff dive into the Bomb’s Breath—the deadly band of compressed air that covers the crater left by the bombs—than fail at yet another invention. When bandits discover that White Rock has priceless antibiotics, they invade. Hope and her friends—Aaron and Brock—might be the only ones who can escape to make the dangerous trek through the Bomb’s Breath and over the snow-covered mountain. Inventing won’t help her make it through alive, but with Aaron and Brock’s help, the daring and recklessness that usually gets her into trouble might just save them all.

The Review:

Sky Jumpers is the perfect book to get your kids interested in futuristic (and somewhat dystopian) adventure stories – especially if they are a bit too young for Hunger Games and Divergent. Everything was perfectly engaging and exciting – from the great mission to save the valley to the trials of creating a good invention (my favorite part of the story – what fun!) and it was all just tame enough to be a good read for everybody.

As an adult reader (I use the term loosely), I found many things appealing: the overall concept, the atmosphere, and the characters. The only thing I could’ve used more of, at least in the beginning, was quicker pacing. The inciting incident didn’t take place until almost halfway through the book. Usually, that’s a big problem. In this case, it wasn’t totally detrimental to the story, but the book might’ve been stronger if it had more of a direction early on.

Here’s a couple of elements why, even without the inciting incident, I still really enjoyed the first half of the book: it had fun, engaging moments of mischief and great inner conflicts surrounding the main character. I really felt immersed into this girl’s world and her struggles to be a good daughter and a good inventor were more than enough to carry the story. Overall, it was a delightful read and one that I will definitely be suggesting to customers.

Recommended Reading: for anyone wanting to get absorbed in a fun adventure – especially those completely content picking up a middle grade book.

By Niki Hawkes

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