Bonnie Dobkin is the author of Dreamspinner a 2006 Book Sense Pick. She is an language arts textbook editor and lives outside Chicago with her husband and three sons.
Gr 7 Up-In the wake of a biological terrorist attack, adults are killed but the children visiting the Isles of Wonder amusement park remain alive. Bonnie Dobkin's post-apocalyptic tale (Walker, 2008) is The Lord of the Flies gone wild in a theme park. Josh and his sister Maddie are among the survivors. The children, all under the age of 13, are organized into a workable society and a rudimentary government is established. There is an easy assumption of adult responsibilities by the youngsters who form family units. Some jarring notes include several of the kids pairing off and becoming soon-to-be-parents (weren't these all pre-pubescent kids?) as well as a group of survivors who are called "ghoulies." When some survivors want to leave and find out what's happening Outside, inevitable fractures in the veneer of their perfect world splinter into violence and power mongering. Narrator Carine Montbertrand tries a bit too hard to use different inflections for each character, resulting in a hoarse delivery for most of the boys and piping voices for many of the girls and younger children. Still, this is a captivating survival tale to add to collections.-Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
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