In Darkness by Nick Lake. Bloomsbury. 2012. Review copy from publisher. The Plot: A young man is trapped in darkness: one minute he is in his hospital bed, the next the building is rubble around him and he is alive but there is no way out. He will tell you a story, his story, of how he [...]
Looking for Light: ‘In Darkness’ author Lake talks to SLJ
By on February 14, 2013 Leave a Comment
It took many by surprise when Nick Lake’s ambitious young adult novel In Darkness (Bloomsbury) was named for the Printz Award at last month’s Youth Media Awards. Although filled with vivid details of oppression, poverty, and violence, Lake sees the book as a hopeful one with an important message for its teen readers, “this idea of darkness being only a temporary thing,” he tells SLJ.
Pick of the Day: In Darkness
By on December 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
LAKE, Nick. In Darkness. 352p. Bloomsbury. 2012. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-1-59990-743-7; ebook $9.99. ISBN 978-1-59990-820-5. LC 2011022350.
Gr 9 Up–Trapped in the rubble of Haiti’s massive 2010 earthquake, teenage Shorty desperately waits for rescue. While in darkness, events of his traumatic, violent life replay in his head. He is haunted by his father’s brutal murder, his twin sister’s disappearance, and the armed gang activity that has been his means of survival in Site Soléy (Cite Soleil), a very real and dangerous [...]
Pick of the Day: Safekeeping
By on August 15, 2012 Leave a Comment
HESSE, Karen. Safekeeping. photos by author. 294p. Feiwel & Friends. Sept. 2012. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-1-250-01134-3.
Gr 7 Up–Radley Parker-Hughes has been volunteering in an orphanage in Haiti after the recent earthquake, but she returns home to a country in the grip of an even more chaotic situation. The American Political Party has assumed power, the president has been assassinated, and martial law prevails. Soldiers with guns at the airport, travel paper requirements–is this really the New Hampshire she left just a [...]
