The Copper Elephant

The world is well done and detailed, the characters are interesting, but forgive me Mr. Rapp I couldn't find much point or plot to the book! Perhaps a wiser reader could, or perhaps there will be a sequel that'll get more done. I'd certainly buy a sequel.

On a post appocolyptic Earth of the future, ruled by a dictator, eleven-year-old Whensday fights a daily battle for survival. She escapes slave labor in a mine after being rescued by a merchant. Impoverished, he decides to sell her to a childless woman. Whensday things she is being sold back into slavery, so she escapes into the devestated landscape, where acid rain falls daily. She joins up with two other children, but things grow steadily worse, and Whensday ends up being raped, while the friend who tried to save her is put to death. This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you do read it, it gives you a look at a decimated future, and a young girl so determined to survive that she never gives up, in spite of all the horrors she goes through.

This is an amazing novel that immerses the reader in a bleak and disturbing world. Using a intimate first person perspective - the reader truly experiences the environment that has been created. I felt myself continually surprised at the direction the book would take, yet surprise turned into acceptance of the situation (I won't spoil details for you!). All of the characters are vivid and compelling. I only hope that there will be a sequel, for I want to be taken back to this world...

It is critical to get our teenagers to read more and betterliterature. Reading skills are at the core of all types of learning,but teens are more easily distracted from taking the time to read today than in the past. Hence, when serious, new fiction is published for high school age children, parents, teachers and librarians should jump at the chance to make the work available.Written in comtemporary language, Adam Rapp's tale of a post-apocalyptic community, written in the voice of a young girl, is the kind of novel teens will be drawn to. The storyline, the issues and the language are not for the faint of heart, so it is not for every youngster. But I highly recommend the book for mature readers, particularly in the age range of 12 to 18.Most importantly, this is a book that today's teens will want to read and will enjoy, but is sophisticated enough to satisfy any fair-minded secondary school English teacher. My 13-year-old loved it, and his teacher, a department chair in his school's English department, thanked me for bringing it to her attention.