Memory Boy - Hardcover

Weaver, Will

3.58

854 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060288116 ISBN 13: 9780060288112

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

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Worldwide disaster strikes early in the new millennium. A chain of cataclysmic volcanic explosions sends a cloud of ash into the atmosphere--three years later, the ash is still falling. Sunlight is scarce. Food is rationed. Cities are becoming wastlands of looting and murder. And sixteen-year-old Miles Newell is sure his family is in increasing danger.

Escaping Minneapolis on the Ali Princess-- Miles's startling invention--the Newells hope to find comparative safety int he country. But as the family travel deeper into rural Minnesota, they find that people everywhere have changed. No one can be trusted.

In this gripping adventure, a family leave behind all they've ever known to journey into the wilderness and an uncertain future.

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Review:

It is the year 2008, and volcanic ash is still falling soft and deadly over 16-year-old Miles Newell's hometown of Minneapolis. Ever since the '06 eruption of Washington's Mount Rainier, the entire United States has suffered food and fuel shortages due to the stifling gray ash. In the big cities, chaos and crime are beginning to creep in. Miles, who always hid his mechanical skills and phenomenal memory behind a screen of sarcasm and smart remarks, discovers that now his natural talents just may save the lives of his family. Since fuel is astronomically expensive, he uses his tools to build a vehicle made of bicycle and sailboat parts. The Newell family utilizes this strange apparatus to escape to their summer cottage, braving hostile biker gangs and suspicious police along the way. But a nasty surprise awaits them when they finally reach their destination, and Miles must draw upon his other special gift--his amazingly accurate memory--to find sanctuary for himself and his family in this new, uncertain future.

In an interesting departure from his usual setting of farmyards and baseball fields, (Farm Team, Hard Ball, etc.) young-adult novelist Will Weaver has created an eerie gray landscape where only the resourceful survive. While the adventurous plot of this futuristic Swiss Family Robinson tale will draw in even the most reluctant reader, the novel's greatest strength lies in Weaver's characterization of a smart young man who discovers his worth. Memory Boy is an admirable first foray into a new genre for veteran author Weaver. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

About the Author:

Will Weaver is an award-winning fiction writer. His latest novel is The Survivors, a sequel to his popular young adult novel Memory Boy. His other books include Full Service, Defect, Saturday Night Dirt, Super Stock Rookie, Checkered Flag Cheater, Claws, and the Billy Baggs books Striking Out, Farm Team, and Hard Ball, all of which are ALA Best Books for Young Adults. Formerly an English professor at Bemidji State University, he lives in northern Minnesota, a region he writes from and loves. He is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hunting, fishing, canoeing, and hiking with his family and friends.