Summer Reading

My summer reading list included these two excellent young adult books by Canadian authors.

Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony deals with a world reeling from a global economic collapse fueled by a lack of oil. Agriculture, preserving foods, bicycles, and bartering have become the standards in a society without cars. Molly, the sixteen year old protagonist, shows courage, independence, and compassion while on a mission to save her grandparents and bring them back to her family's island farm community. This book is an excellent introduction to the topics of peak oil, sustainability, and consumerism.

No Safe Place is a gripping, eye-opening novel about displaced peoples. Deborah Ellis' characters are on a journey from their former homes to Britain in search of a better life. Through its characters, the novel discusses the treatment of Iraqi Kurds, Roma people in Europe, and orphans in Russia through a lens of the illegal traffic of immigrants. This is another great novel from the author of the Breadwinner trilogy.