NZ Intermediate School Librarians discussion

A gripping read, I read this because it is in the shortlist for the NZ Children’s Book Awards, and incredibly in the first book category. At first I thought Wil’s way of talking, his dialect, would annoy me, but actually it made me reminiscent of Ness’s Knife of Never Letting Go and I grew to love this character in the same way. With a sense of justice carrying on the teachings of his guardians to “hear the rhythm beat and feel the hearts blood warm”, Wil is able to survive cruel treatment at the Ferule, an education centre designed to knock the heart out of any boy. Slowly winning over others with the same tendency to justice, this is a tense tale of survival, friendship and rebellion. Would strongly recommend to fans of Chaos Walking trilogy, and perhaps Brotherband, Hunger Games etc, and I cant wait to read Crosstrees to find out what happens next. Some of the descriptions of whipping and other fairly extreme types of discipline make it minimum intermediate age.