Cyborg

Gr 4—7—It is the year 2171, and scientists have learned to clone human beings and replace body parts, but at a price. Houston Ye is on a boat with his mother when he has an accident. Doctors are able to save his life, but they have to replace his eye, arm, leg, and heart with biofe parts. He is now a cyborg in a world where cyborgs are discriminated against and treated as second-class citizens. He and his friends Leanna (the clone from the first novel) and Carlos stand up to the cyborg community, which is trying to use violent protests against the passing of the Wholer Act. They use examples of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to convince the cyborgs to use nonviolent protests to change the laws. This sci-fi adventure is mixed with historical comparisons with Ernest Shackleton's crew and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. It's a fast-paced book, sometimes too much so. There is little character development, and the plot takes sudden jumps that makes it difficult to follow. The novel includes background information on the laws dealing with clones and cyborgs, a brief history of the events that led up to this time, as well as a "yesterday and tomorrow" section that compares the events in the story to historical events. Additional.—Erik Carlson, White Plains Public Library, NY