The Gardener - Hardcover

S.A. Bodeen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312370164 ISBN 13: 9780312370169

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends, 2010

Synopsis

Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children's book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds. Mason learns she is part of a horrible experiment intended to render teenagers into autotrophs―genetically engineered, self-sustaining life-forms who don't need food or water to survive. And before he knows it, Mason is on the run with the girl, and wanted, dead or alive, by the mysterious mastermind of this gruesome plan, who is simply called the Gardener.

Will Mason be forced to destroy the thing he's longed for most?
The Gardener is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

About this title

About the Author

S.A. Bodeen is the author of The Compound, which earned her an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults, a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly "Flying Start." She is also the author of several picture books, including Elizabeti's Doll, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award. Bodeen grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Her first friends were cows, which she named after characters in books. From there she went on to be a Peace Corps volunteer in East Africa, and has lived in seven states, as well as a remote Pacific island. She adores books and is a big fan of cheese. She lives in Oregon.

Reviews

Grade 7–10—On a visit to the nursing home in which his mother works, Mason discovers that her job does not involve caring for the elderly patients as he imagined, but for several apparently catatonic teenagers. When his mother steps away, one of the teens awakens in response to a DVD that he puts on. She suffers from amnesia but somehow knows she must escape her current environment and begs Mason for his help. He suddenly finds himself on the run from TroDyn Industries, the scientific corporation that owns most of his town. It has been using the girl as part of some sort of research—but what kind? And might there be some link to the father Mason has never met? Much of the suspense the novel tries to build is undermined by heavy foreshadowing and the image and tagline on the book's cover. A plot twist at the end depends on the scheming of a newly introduced character and falls flat. Reluctant readers might overlook these flaws in favor of a quick read with a likable protagonist and a juicy premise, but James Dashner's Maze Runner (Random, 2009) and William Sleator's House of Stairs (Dutton, 1985) are stronger stories about scientific experiments performed on teens.—Hayden Bass, Seattle Public Library, WA
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Edition details

• Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312370164
• ISBN 13: 9780312370169
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 233