Floodland by Sedgwick, Marcus (2000) Paperback

by Marcus Sedgwick

Global warming has caused the sea to rise until cities are turning into islands and civilization is crumbling. Ten-year-old Zoe discovers a small rowboat and keeps it a secret until she sets 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 stand up to its boy-leader, Dooby. Zoe and a boy called Munchkin escape from Eels Island and cross the sea to the mainland, where they find not only Zoe’s parents but a new family and a new world.

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Childrens, Fantasy

Paperback

First published March 2, 2000

About the author

Marcus Sedgwickwas a British writer and illustrator. He authored several young adult and children's books and picture books, a work of nonfiction and several novels for adults, and illustrated a collection of myths and a book of folk tales for adults.

Reviews

[Sally906 · Rating 4 out of 5]

My biggest complaint about FLOODLAND is that it is too short and as a result it suffered from not being able to give enough information to the reader to totally be at ease with what was going on. Ten-year old Zoe lives on Norwich. No, that’s not a typo – Norwich has become an island as the ice caps melted and sea levels rose inundating much of Britain and the rest of the world. Supplies were running out and six months previously when the boat came to drop off supplies for the last time Zoe’s parents make it out but she is left behind. Zoe now has to fend for herself in a settlement which is growing smaller each day, while the people become more savage and desperate. Zoe finds a boat and rows off to find her parents. Half way to what’s left of the mainland she comes across another small isle that is dominated by huge Cathedral. A grimy, miserable and unpleasant place the young population is starving and under the thumb of a thug called Dooby. They call themselves, the Eels and do battle with at least two other groups called Cats and Horses. When I say do battle I mean heads being chopped off and torturing of ‘spies.’ Zoe is forced to stay on the island when her boat is hidden, and life is very, very dismal. However Zoe is a gutsy little girl and survives long enough to find her boat, make an ally and to escape in the middle of a battle and continue off to find her parents. FLOODLAND is unrelentingly miserable and dark with a lot of unanswered questions. I found the end to be a bit of an anti-climax after all the drama building in the first ¾ of the book. I understand Zoe is only 10 so should only have the understanding of a 10-year-old; and the book is aimed at older children rather than adults; but I still would have liked the book to be longer to give more of a background because even young kiddies like to know why! Despite its bleakness the story itself is very good and has a very believable plot it’s just that Zoe is all over the place as far as her character goes and on top of that it seems like the story starts and ends in the middle. FLOODLAND is Marcus Sedgwick’s debut novel – and he has gone on to write 32 more, this is my first experience of his work.

[retrometro (ocelot’s version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this in school and all i can remember is that i wanted her parents to die and it was shady as fuck

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Floodland is an interesting story about a young girl called Zoe who lives on a deserted island, Norwich. Norwich is deserted because of high sea levels.
Zoe's parents left on a supply ship without realising Zoe was still on the island. She manages to flee Norwich on a derelict boat called Lyca. Zoe makes it to another island where she is faced with more danger. This story delves into Zoe's adventures where she meets lots of fascinating characters along the way.

This book is great for whole class reading, used in a year five class who absolutely love it! The children are always excited to see what will happen next. The story is bursting with adventure and a class have lots of characters and situations to explore. Great for boys and girls.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are currently reading this book in the classroom, as it is part of our English curriculum.
An easy and quick read that is set in the near future where global warming causes sea levels to rise, which then causes floods.

The main idea of the book which is global warming, gives the children a perspective about how the future would be if humans keep on neglecting the environmental issues. I enjoyed listening to the children's interesting discussions about how we can reduce the effects by changing our behavior.

I have to say though that I really disliked the ending, very cheesy.

[Alison Wickham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell in love with this story. Based in a post apocalyptic world (the future of the world if global warming keeps happening) it approaches many themes.
Family and the connection with Zoe's parents is one.
Community, and how a disaster impacts people's sanity and kindness.
Journey, how through everything Zoe is smart and manages to escape!
The language in the book is simple to read but very descriptive, using lots of metaphors and personification.
I am using this book as the basis for a unit of work on placement and very excited to see how the children's work turns out.

[High_On_Chai · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, this book is about a girl called zoe who lives in Norwich (but the ice things have melted so it's surrounded by water yk us if a few yrs) anyways her parents left on a boat without her and never came back😥 and this is abt her journey to find her parents. I anticipated a more sadder ending, but, unfortunately I didn't get that😭But it's a good book overall especially for children to understand climate change and that.

[Aaminah X · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic but profound look on a world overcome by rising seas. It is touching in a simple way. The story it tells is simple. The characters are simple. But the book itself is a little work of art in how it portrays the collapse of a civilisation. Perhaps it will happen, and everything else will be washed away. Take a glimpse of a possible future.

[Alannashea]

This book is an insult to sci fi. It makes no sense whatsoever

[Kieron Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cracking idea. Shame about the cheesy ending.

[PEM 🇬🇧 (Emma) Sidney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book with an interesting storyline! The one thing that puts me off is that the ending makes no sense (timelines don’t match up, things are mentioned that add nothing to the story, etc)

[Gma Leah⁷ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ but rounded up because I really enjoyed the tale!! But it should’ve been longer—the story suffered for that. I also understand WHY the ending, but I also hate.

[MoonStar · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is one of the WORST books I've ever read. the only good thing is the side characters. other than that PEAK TRASH BRO. ZOE IS SO BORING OMG THE WRITING IS SO RUBBISH BRO IT WAS SO PAINFULLY AVERAGE -100/10 AWFUL. (I did this at school)

[Lauma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended for ages 10 to 13, this book falls into the category of "Surviving Environmental Catastrophes." Set in the near future, global warming has caused the Earth's sea levels to rise and flood the coastal nations around the world. Zoe's family is last to leave their flooded town in England, and she is sadly separated from her parents as they get on the last boats. She is fortunate to uncover a small rowboat submerged in the mud, and fixes it up so she can escape her town and find her parents. Zoe faces many challenges on her journey, particularly when stopping at a small "island" of an old cathedral that is overrun with wild children competing for space and resources.

It is an interesting premise and provides a glimpse of how rising waters could change life as we know it from a 10 year old girl's perspective. I really liked the story but found the characterizations a bit flat and the ending unsatisfying. However, I think pre-teens will like this book and find it a thought provoking adventure story.

[Dan Allbery · Rating 2 out of 5]

"And how do you think people have survived? How do people remember who they are and where they're from? And how do they know what it means to be human, what makes us more than animals? How do they pass these things on to their children? Stories, that's how."

2.5 Stars - Oh, the potential. Unfortunately, this story stayed just that, potential.

When I first saw Floodland on the shelf, I was intrigued by a storyline from the climate fiction genre. Could this be the new, go-to branch of dystopian fiction? Although this genre may still blossom, Floodland is not its flag bearer.

After reading the opening paragraph beginning with "Zoe ran" I was all in. The first chapter chase scene was a strong start. However, as the book continued, rich characters were given little airtime, conflicts were resolved or discarded too quickly, and the ending was sophomoric at best.

I encourage readers to start exploring the climate fiction genre more, but not necessarily with this title. Recommended GR 4-6.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A prescient Idea but the characterisations were a bit flat. Sedgwick had obviously been influenced by William Blake’s ideas of how we have the power within ourselves and our imaginations to build a society that is for the good of all, or one that is destructive and selfish. (The names of the lands and dwelling places are taken from Jerusalem and Blake’s visionary imagination). However, I don’t think he develops this and the ideas fall into the background. I didn’t really believe in the characters or their dynamics and relationships and felt the ending was rather cliched.

[Miss G A Cogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am teaching this to my year 6 class and it has been a great success as it totally engages its readers and is topical and relevant.
The doom that prevails is beautifully crafted as is the glimmer of hope that pulls us through the book with its magnetism.
Many of my class have gone on to read other novels by the same author.

[Muhammad Imran · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book

This is one of the best books i read. This book has a lot of vocabulary. The best thing about this book is that if I do not know a word I can select it and directly the meaning of the word appears.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book the fact it was a middle grade book meant it was shorter and did not go in to the depth I would have liked but I enjoyed the stories I just wanted more from the characters

[Maddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this with my year 6 class and we all agreed that the ending was very predictable - they especially were not happy with how easily Zoe accepted everything and let go of her anger.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a girl named Zoe escaping her home island, and going to mainland to meet her parents. Zoe's home island Norwich was getting smaller by the year because the sea was taking up more place. No ship was coming to the island for food or taking people or anything, and the last ship that carried people was away with her parents. She was supposed to get on the 2nd one, but it went without her. But Zoe didn't lose complete hope. She had a boat named Lyca to escape. She leaved all the people that were fighting to get on the boat, and went for an unknown journey with only a compass. After that she goes to a mysterious island named Eels island, where people lived who were unhappy. Most of them had similar ages as Zoe, and they were all controlled by the leader, Dooby. At first Dooby wanted to escape the island with Zoe, abandoning all his people, but Zoe refused after seeing Dooby's violence. Instead, she escapes with a boy named Munchkin, successfully goes to mainland, and meets her parents that she hadn't seen for a year. For my opinion, the ending of the book was a little disappointing, because it ended like on the middle of the story. I think it would have been better if it showed how Zoe and Munchkin got along and about them having their baby brother. Also, I think this book was mainly focusing on how the water is getting higher and lands getting smaller. It was shown as the mystery in the book, but after research I knew that it was because Earth was getting warmer. As it gets warmer, glaciers in the North and South Pole are melting, and it becomes water which makes the ocean bigger. Even though it takes so many years for an island to completely sink, I noticed that if we don't have any interest on global warming, things will go much faster than we expected. For example, the Galapagos island already sank because sea covered its surface. After reading this book, I resolved myself to walk more or ride a bike more than riding cars to delay global warming, or save electricity to emit less carbon dioxide.

[Eowynselixure_book Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine that England is covered by water and Norwich is an island...

Zoe, left behind in the confusion, survives there as best she can. Alone and desperate among marauding gangs, she manages to dig a derelict boat out of the mud and escape to Eels Island. But Eels Island, whose raggle-taggle inhabitants are dominated by the strange boy Dooby, is full of dangers too.

I can't really say I enjoyed this book much as it really is too short.

Zoe as a character was fleshed out enough to get a sense of her goals and motivations but I didn't really identify with her. Other characters were also fleshed out and I found some of the side characters interesting.

The idea behind this post apocalyptic world was fascinating and it wasn't too preachy seeing as it is a possible eventuality of global warming.

The pacing was fast, choppy even at times and the narrative quite disjointed. the ending came with a large dose of skepticism on my part as it was unbelievable and unsatisfactory.

I have to say I finished this book wondering what the message was? If it was to make people aware of the dangers of global warming it didn't touch on what had actually happened to bring about this world with any clarity. If it was that tragedy brings out the worst in humans then it did a good job but it didn't go deep enough.

It was a good debut novella but I believe it suffered from the length and the ideas could have been developed further.

[Zowie Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for the first time with my class last year, and again this year, but I never had the chance to finish it - until now.
My Y6 classes loved reading this and really got into the futuristic plot and character development.

The story is set in the nearby future. England has been almost completly reclaimed by the sea. Zoe, the heroine of the story hasnt seen her father and her sick mother since they sailed away from the island of Norwich on the last boat to leave, Zoe was accidentally left behind and has had to face life alone. Zoe comes across an abandoned old boat and spends hours making it seaworthy, she escapes and makes her way to Eel Island (which is actually Ely Cathedral, with the spires still standing). Eel Island is ruled by a strange young boy called Dooby and there she meets an old man William who tells her some odd stories - he tells Zoe about the days before England was flooded and people could actually drive from Norwich to Ely Cathedral.

This is a topical book looks at climate change and global warming and what could actually happen in the future. It also shows how human beings can be brutal when it comes to survival.

A fantastic read. Highly recommended.

[M. Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marcus Sedgwick has written some of the funniest books I've read in ages: the darkly comic Raven Mysteries, beginning with Flood And Fang. This book, his debut novel, about civilisation falling to pieces after floods have inundated the east of England, contrasts starkly with the adventures of Edgar and Solstice and co. It could hardly be darker or gimmer, a wander through Lord of the Flies territory that would have had Golding trembling with fear. It's good, more a 3.5 stars than a 3, but I found the main character Zoe to be a bit 'shrill' - there were too many sudden emotional leaps. While those could have been handled within the context of her situation as she flees Norwich in search of her parents, they aren't, and so come across a bit like overwrought acting. All the same a stark and haunting book, best counteracted by a dose of Edgar and the Otherhands.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcus Sedgwick knows how to write a novel with a bit of an edge to it. He is able to create an atmosphere - a darkness - that just puts you a little bit out of your comfort zone.

Set on the east coast of England after the sea has risen and flooded much of East Anglia, Floodland tells the story of ten year old Zoe who has lost her parents in a confusing rescue mission from her home island of Norwich. She is determined to set out and search for her parents and when she finds an old boat, she makes her escape.

Zoe ends up on an island (called isle of the Eels) which is run by a sinister boy named Dooby, who holds an unpleasant control over all left on the island.

Reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, this is a story of survival and the nature of humans.
It is not a long story and so would potentially appeal to reluctant readers of about 10 and up.

[Mark Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Marcus Sedgwick and his writing style and this being his debut novel was clearly a stepping stone for his future work to come.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Britain after global warming has caused the seas to rise and turn the country into a series of Islands. On Norwich, we meet our main character, Zoe, who lost her parents as the last they got away on the last boat but Zoe got left behind. Zoe one day finds a boat and escapes from Norwich and starts her journey to find her parents. Along the way she ends up at another Island where she gets herself into a tricky situation and well I won't spoil any more.

It did feel the story was a bit rushed, in a book that was about 120 pages. I could have done with some more detail and more plot development. I feel there was much more to this story. A thoroughly enjoyable read though.

[Nene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this for school and I just gotta say it actually surprised me. Yes, it wasn't as good as most of the books I've read in my life, but it's definitely not the worst story ever. The characters were thought through and not that basic. I honestly liked how the climate change way portrait although I probably would have acted differently than the characters. It was interesting to see Zoe develop from this hopeful girl to an adult. The writing on the other hand was not the best, I feel like the emotions could have been shown better. I definitely would not have picked this book up if it weren't for school, because the writing and story just aren't my favorite, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In conclusion there are way worse books but it is definitely not a must read.

[Ciara Flannery · Rating 4 out of 5]

After seeing Floodland used in a Year 5 class on my last placement I was pleasantly surprised at its many uses within the classroom and its cross curricular links. The story had the children captured and they couldn't wait to find out what happened at the end. The main character was a very head strong, independent girl named Zoe who overcame many problems with mostly no adult figures to guide her. We were invited by the author into the chaos of what the UK may be like if problems with climate change are not solved and the clever use of the story told from Zoe's perspective allows us to visualise this 'hell' that Zoe ended up surrounded by. I did feel that the ending was a little rushed and as though the part that the story built up to was missing a great amount of detail but over all myself and the class thoroughly enjoyed the book.

[Nicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this over a weekend so I could use it as a stimulus for the English work the children in the year 6 class I was working with were going to do. Although, the purpose of this was to read the book and create activities around it, I found that I was drawn into the book and constantly wanting to know what was going to happen next. Zoe, is a strong character and I like the way the author has shown this throughout the book. He has shown that strong can have many different definitions. I would highly recommend this book not only to use as a stimulus but as a read because it really gets you thinking.

[Katy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Floodland is recommended for ages 10-13. This is an interesting story set in the near future, where global warming has caused the Earth’s sea levels to rise, flooding much of Britain and the rest of the world. The book follows the life of a 10-year old year, Zoe, through her struggle of survival in a devasted world and journey to find her parents. The book has a captivating plot, with interesting characters that I am sure children will enjoy reading. The language in the book is simple but very descriptive, with interesting discussion points too, making it a good choice of book to read/study as a class.

[Sara G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this is the first draft... or maybe the second one? I mean, it reads as if he wanted to write a 500 page book about this new dystopian world but he didn't really know how to develop it further. The story itself is good and interesting, and the writing is...fine. But it does feel unfinished and I feel like the editor should have pushed for a bit more detail or explanation. I do realise the time frame is a bit short but still...
Again, I did really like the writing. Will absolutely be checking out more of the author.