What do you think?
Rate this book
Home
It's 2067 and the world has become virtually uninhabitable with all the pollution and toxins created by mankind. Ruling classes live holed up in the cities and workers live in Stations, safe from the outside world. But one day Station 27 is taken over by rebels. Nero, from the ruling classes, and Sacks, a worker, find themselves thrown together as they're captured by the rebels, their common enemy. As they begin to discover the terrifying truth about their world, the two children get separated and find themselves in great danger. Will they find each other before it is too late?
258 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
5 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Nicola Davies
166 books182 followers"I was very small when I saw my first dolphin," says zoologist Nicola Davies, recalling a seminal visit with her father to a dolphin show at the zoo. Enchanted at the sight of what she called the "big fish" jumping so high and swimming so fast, she determined right then that she would meet the amazing creatures again "in the wild, where they belonged." And indeed she did--as part of a pair of scientific expeditions, one to Newfoundland at the age of eighteen and another to the Indian Ocean a year later. In WILD ABOUT DOLPHINS, Nicola Davies describes her voyages in a firsthand account filled with fascinating facts and captivating photographs of seven species of dolphins in action.
Nicola Davies's seemingly boundless enthusiasm for studying animals of all kinds has led her around the world--and fortunately for young readers, she is just as excited about sharing her interests through picture books. The zoologist's latest offering puts a decidedly quirky twist on her years of experience: POOP: A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE UNMENTIONABLE is a fun, fact-filled guide to the fascinating world of poop across species. "As a zoologist, you are never far from poop!" the writer explains. "I've baked goose poop in an oven with my dinner, looked at bat poop under the microscope, and had my T-shirt stained pink with blue-whale poop. I was obviously fated to write this book."
The exceptional combination of Nicola Davies's zoological expertise and her first-rate children's writing is apparent in her remarkable catalog of award-winning titles. Her first book with Candlewick Press, BIG BLUE WHALE, was hailed by American Bookseller as an "artfully composed study" offering "language exactly appropriate for four- to seven-year-olds and precisely the right amount of information." In ONE TINY TURTLE, Nicola Davies's clear, compelling narrative follows the life of the rarely seen loggerhead turtle, which swims the oceans for thirty years and for thousands of miles in search of food, only to return, uncannily, to lay her eggs on the very beach where she was born. The author's next book, BAT LOVES THE NIGHT, is a tenderly written ode to a much-misunderstood flying mammal, the pipistrelle bat, while SURPRISING SHARKS--winner of a BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Honor Award--contains unexpected facts about another one of the planet's most infamous animals.
When she is not off on scientific expeditions, Nicola Davies lives in a cottage in Somerset, England, where she is lucky enough to have pipistrelle bats nesting in her roof.
Nicola Davies's seemingly boundless enthusiasm for studying animals of all kinds has led her around the world--and fortunately for young readers, she is just as excited about sharing her interests through picture books. The zoologist's latest offering puts a decidedly quirky twist on her years of experience: POOP: A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE UNMENTIONABLE is a fun, fact-filled guide to the fascinating world of poop across species. "As a zoologist, you are never far from poop!" the writer explains. "I've baked goose poop in an oven with my dinner, looked at bat poop under the microscope, and had my T-shirt stained pink with blue-whale poop. I was obviously fated to write this book."
The exceptional combination of Nicola Davies's zoological expertise and her first-rate children's writing is apparent in her remarkable catalog of award-winning titles. Her first book with Candlewick Press, BIG BLUE WHALE, was hailed by American Bookseller as an "artfully composed study" offering "language exactly appropriate for four- to seven-year-olds and precisely the right amount of information." In ONE TINY TURTLE, Nicola Davies's clear, compelling narrative follows the life of the rarely seen loggerhead turtle, which swims the oceans for thirty years and for thousands of miles in search of food, only to return, uncannily, to lay her eggs on the very beach where she was born. The author's next book, BAT LOVES THE NIGHT, is a tenderly written ode to a much-misunderstood flying mammal, the pipistrelle bat, while SURPRISING SHARKS--winner of a BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Honor Award--contains unexpected facts about another one of the planet's most infamous animals.
When she is not off on scientific expeditions, Nicola Davies lives in a cottage in Somerset, England, where she is lucky enough to have pipistrelle bats nesting in her roof.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 7, 2012
I really didn't like this book. For starters, it was quite boring at the start and I was hoping for it to get better but it didn't. It was also quite strange and just unusual.
Ahhh it annoys me when books don't turn out the way I expect them too!!!
Until next time. :)
Ahhh it annoys me when books don't turn out the way I expect them too!!!
Until next time. :)
September 4, 2016
This book got me excited by the start, dragged a little in the middle and then totally lost me with a frankly wild ending. Characters were well depicted but I needed a little more world building to fully understand their surroundings.
June 16, 2023
I feel a rant coming on....
First of all, that gorgeous cover screams space and sci-fi, heck the blurb even talks about aliens but this is actually a very much Earth-set dystopian (I notice the Goodreads synopsis is very different to the back of the book which would have clarified things a bit better). Once I realised there were no aliens, I adjusted my expectations and got reading.
The two main characters were so hard to pin down. At first I thought that Sacks was an immature adult, and then I thought she was about 11. It wasn't until Nero mentioned that another kid was a few years younger than him that I figured out they were meant to be teenagers. Neither had much personality to speak of other than both being extremely gullible. I could have excused it a little in Sacks as she was brainwashed her entire life but apparently one bird feather is enough to undo a lifetime of manipulation???
Speaking of brainwashing,
First of all, that gorgeous cover screams space and sci-fi, heck the blurb even talks about aliens but this is actually a very much Earth-set dystopian (I notice the Goodreads synopsis is very different to the back of the book which would have clarified things a bit better). Once I realised there were no aliens, I adjusted my expectations and got reading.
The two main characters were so hard to pin down. At first I thought that Sacks was an immature adult, and then I thought she was about 11. It wasn't until Nero mentioned that another kid was a few years younger than him that I figured out they were meant to be teenagers. Neither had much personality to speak of other than both being extremely gullible. I could have excused it a little in Sacks as she was brainwashed her entire life but apparently one bird feather is enough to undo a lifetime of manipulation???
Speaking of brainwashing,
July 3, 2017
I 'read' this as an audio book while on a long drive and didn't like, or get used to, the way the female narrator spoke either for the 'workers' or for the ruling classes but I gather it was to stress the difference between the accents of the 2 classes. The voice for Nero and the other males was fine though.
For lovers of stories of dystopian futures (the reason I chose to read it), this was different - from the 'units' the workers = slaves tend, to the mad idea of humans being aliens on Earth, with 'Home' being a place we would all return to one day. Despite the author trying, I didn't recognise depth of character or emotion in any of the main characters and came to a disappointing, abrupt ending.
For lovers of stories of dystopian futures (the reason I chose to read it), this was different - from the 'units' the workers = slaves tend, to the mad idea of humans being aliens on Earth, with 'Home' being a place we would all return to one day. Despite the author trying, I didn't recognise depth of character or emotion in any of the main characters and came to a disappointing, abrupt ending.
October 11, 2017
This was a library listen. It started okay - a bit too much explanation and not much action, but then things improved. Set in the future there are workers and supervisors. We follow 2 worker friends and learn about their world. Then their lives cross the path of a supervisor and what they thought was true is revealed to be something else, as the action heats up. The narrator had an annoying voice and occasionally she dropped out of character which was rather jarring. I would have said it is aimed at 8-9 year olds except there were some graphic descriptions of killing animals that would probably upset younger readers. Overall passed the time but can't recommend it.
February 9, 2020
The audio book was not the way to go for this. They had a Texan accent for some reason, & the only story line I really got is that they keep being told they’ll leave earth & go home but that’s not true. And then rebels blow a building up. And that’s basically all I understood. Maybe one day i’ll try to physically read this but for now, I’m giving it two stars because I just didn’t really catch on to what was happening with audiobook which is probably a me problem rather than the book itself.
November 11, 2019
Wonderful book!!!
August 23, 2020
An interesting concept, maybe the ending was a little rushed but otherwise a good read.
October 15, 2020
A bit naff, really. Passed some time but don’t really recommend.
January 17, 2025
Dnf it after 4 chapters.
February 9, 2010
All of the workers have been told that the outside world is harmful, and so everyone stays inside the glass domes where they work and sleep. Except for Sacks. When she goes out and realises it's not actually harmful, it sets in motion a massive set of events, which leads to something Sacks could never have dreamed of...
This wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be, which is a bit of a shame. The storyline was okay, the characters were okay, but nothing was ever more than okay. An easy read with an interesting concept which could have been so much more than it was. The way they talked was really annoying, the workers who were meant to be the lower class had chavvy London accents, and the rulers all spoke perfect english, which just seemed like such a stupid stereotype. Not something I'd bother recommending.
This wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be, which is a bit of a shame. The storyline was okay, the characters were okay, but nothing was ever more than okay. An easy read with an interesting concept which could have been so much more than it was. The way they talked was really annoying, the workers who were meant to be the lower class had chavvy London accents, and the rulers all spoke perfect english, which just seemed like such a stupid stereotype. Not something I'd bother recommending.
November 3, 2015
Awesome book. Its obscure presentation of the story gripped me, and the dystopian plot of rebels and young adults was great. The descriptive writing gave a clear imagery of what the story tries to convey (or at least it did create a "movie" in my head as I read it). I recommend this book to those who enjoy YA Dystopian books, and storytelling from characters' perspectives.
October 31, 2009
It was a strange little book!
January 1, 2012
This wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be and I wouldn't recommend it .
July 27, 2016
Dystopian YA with an abrupt ending.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews