Restoring Harmony

April 26, 2010
Adeptly combining adventure and romance, Anthony’s debut is a tense and often charming tale that never lets its use of the oh-so-trendy dystopian future trope overwhelm some great characters. Molly, a 16-year-old fiddler who lives with her family on a small Canadian island, sets out for Portland, Ore., to see to the health of her grandparents. Various environmental and economic calamities have made communication and travel difficult, and Molly learns many of the harsh realities as she travels south. Once she reaches her grandparents, lacking the money to return home, she puts her gardening skills to use to help her neighbors and meets a handsome boy who goes by the name of Spill. Her troubles are compounded when she learns of the local criminal organization, and her mother’s pregnancy makes getting back to Canada more urgent. Anthony occasionally misfires—some of Molly’s naïveté toward the outside world is overdone, and the complex rules the criminals follow are silly and contrived—but for the most part, the focus is on Molly’s toughness and ability to handle and overcome problems. Ages 12–up.

August 1, 2010

Gr 6 Up-This dystopian tale features a resourceful, spirited, and immensely likable heroine. Molly McClure, 16, has lived her entire life on a small island in Canada. Since the Great Collapse of 2031, her family has managed to create an oasis of security, growing their own food, using solar energy for power, and relying on bicycles and horses for transportation. When they receive word that Molly's grandmother is seriously ill, Molly's mother is deeply worried, further complicating her pregnancy-related health issues. Communications are sketchy at best, and Molly leaves the island to travel to Oregon and hopefully return with her grandparents (her grandfather, a retired physician, has long been estranged from his daughter). She bravely sets off, taking along her beloved fiddle for comfort and company. Already a risky venture, her quest is further imperiled by a run-in with the local crime organization and an outbreak of polio resulting in a border closure. Anthony sketches a world in which food and energy resources are in short supply and people struggle for day-to-day survival, creating a believable backdrop for her complex and charismatic characters. Though it doesn't break new ground, this book is a suspenseful and highly entertaining read that-despite the grim premise-is a surprisingly upbeat and hopeful look at the future.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2010
Grades 6-9 In 2041, when the worlds depleted oil supplies have forced governmental failures and the emergence of a black-market economy, 16-year-old Molly McClure travels to Oregon to convince her aging grandparents to join the rest of the family in British Columbia. That plan takes a backseat to the drama unfolding next doorwhere two children are being cared for by their drunken, gambling uncleand Molly may have two more passengers for the return trip, if she can convince anyone to go. After taking a few chapters to focus the characterization and plot direction, Anthony delivers a plucky heroine with a musical gift, a taste of romance, and a family-values-based narrative about dealing with unexpected circumstances. The tone is hopeful, and there is an innocence to the storytelling that makes the main character seem much younger than her years, in spite of her ability to face down the rough guys. Dont give this to hard-core sf fans, but it might fly with readers of Will Weavers Memory Boy (2001).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2010
In 2041, sixteen-year-old Molly must convince her grandparents to leave the U.S., with its fragmented infrastructure, and relocate to Canada. Problems with cash, transportation, and organized crime arise, but a love interest with connections helps. Anthony presents believable conflicts (albeit amid an erratically depicted vision of civilization's decline), but the lack of genuinely threatening villains limits the story's tension.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)