Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony (9780399252615) 306 pages (Young Adult)

This is a humdinger of a story that is totally unique. While set ten years after the Great Collapse of 2031, this has a down home charm about it that combines elements of The Great Depression, Prohibition, Tammany Hall –bits of history so that this seems almost a riff on The Wizard of Oz rather than your typical sci fi novel. It boils down to a tale of a girl (16 year old Molly McClure) and her fiddle (Jewels), who is sent by her family from home on an island in Canada to the United States to bring home her cantankerous grandfather with the hope that he will become their island’s doctor (the last doctor was kicked to death by a cow). Molly is totally resource and determined to get her grandfather home in time for her sister’s wedding and before her youngest sibling is born. She meets a debonair character who calls himself “Spill” –think a young Nathan Detroit. Will she reform him and save him from a life of crime? Will she make it back to Canada with her grandparents despite the threat of closed borders? The house always winsTake a gamble on this book!

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