Scrap City

Gr 4–6—Jerome meets Arkie in the local junkyard, and discovers a whole new world. Arkie is a living being made of discarded objects, one of the Scrappers who live beneath Jerome's town in a secret city called Smithytowne. Jerome, reeling from the recent loss of his mother and little brother in a fire, finds comfort in his new friendship with Arkie and Arkie's Scrapper family. When real-estate developers want to raze the junkyard to drill for oil, the Scrappers' existence is threatened because they depend on the miraculous Lifewater to stay alive. Oil and water, they note with fear, do not mix. This simply written and plot-driven novel, but the emphasis on preservation gives the story some depth. Jerome is amazed on his first visit to Smithytowne, noting that "everything could be recycled." The junkyard is on land that formerly belonged to the Pinawa, a Native American people: selling it for development would further erase a culture. Jerome's schoolmate Cici Delgado, who is Latina and Native American, helps him in his fight to save his town from corrupt developers, spurred by her interest in the Pinawa people and local history. The action is rollicking, constant and mild enough for young readers, though one instance when Jerome considers revenge for his mother and brother's deaths may be upsetting.