Floodland - Hardcover

Sedgwick, Marcus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038532801X ISBN 13: 9780385328012

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2001

Synopsis

What if the sea began to rise . . . and rise . . . until the land began to disappear? A brilliant futuristic fantasy by an acclaimed new writer.

Global warming has caused the sea to rise until cities are turning into islands and civilization is crumbling. Ten-year-old Zoe Black was left behind on Norwich by accident when her parents escaped in the last supply ship to visit the island. Zoe discovers a small rowboat and keeps it a secret until she can set out alone on the great sea to find her parents. She lands on tiny Eels Island, where she must survive in a nightmarish world run by wild children and their boy-leader, Dooby. Zoe and a boy called Munchkin escape and cross the sea to the mainland, to find not only Zoe's parents but a new family and a new world.

About this title

Review

Ten-year-old Zoe is desperate. In a not-too-distant future where the polar ice caps have melted and most of the planet's land is underwater, she is alone with one precious possession--a rowboat. With it, she can navigate the few bits of land still visible in search of her parents, from whom she was accidentally separated. That is, until she is captured on one desolate shore by a band of impoverished teenagers who call themselves the Eels. On the Eels' island, Zoe's boat is stolen and she is taken prisoner by the gang's savage young leader, Dobby. The only reasonable person left on the island is its sole adult, ironically nicknamed Mad William. Though Dobby's gang dismisses him as crazy, Zoe quickly understands that William's strange mutterings hold the secret to finding both dry land and her parents. Now all she has to do is find her boat, gather provisions, and manage to escape Dobby's grasp before the ever rising water closes over the Eels' island forever.

First-time author Marcus Sedgwick's Floodland is an inspired mix of Lord of the Flies, Survivor, and Tomb Raider, guaranteed to captivate the most reluctant teen readers with deceptively simple prose and a richly imagined plot that could very well come to pass. Sedgwick adds his own stunning, original woodcut illustrations that help communicate the dreary yet barren beauty of the watery setting. All in all, this is a brilliant debut, reminiscent of Garth Nix's Shade's Children and Adam Rapp's The Copper Elephant. (Ages 10 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From the Back Cover

“Taut, accessible, and swift moving . . . an effective cautionary tale.”
–The Horn Book Magazine

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 038532801X
• ISBN 13: 9780385328012
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 148
• Illustrator: Sedgwick Marcus