Ship Breaker

Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker. Little, Brown and Company, 2010. 326 pages, $.99 ISBN: (trade)

Plot Summary:

Nailer spends his days crawling through the skeletal remains of wrecked oil tankers, scavenging usable wiring and metal fixtures.  Nailer lives with his abusive father in a shack on the beach like the rest of the ship breakers.  Luckily, Nailer has family in his best friend and fellow scavenge crew member, Pima and her mother Sadna.  One day Pima and Nailer discover a recently wrecked and unclaimed clipper ship and they think they have struck it rich, until they discover the ship’s wealthy and lone survivor, a teenager girl named Nita.  Nita agrees to take Pima and Nailer away from a life of ship breaking if they help her get in contact with her father.  But when Nailer’s father finds the wreck and Nita, Nailer and Nita must make a run for it if they are going to survive. 

Critical Review:

Bacigalupi has created a believable future America in which the polar ice caps have melted, drowning several cities on the Gulf Coast and oil and other natural resources are now unavailable.  Bacigalupi not only creates a believable world, but weaves a unique culture in the ship breakers, complete with its own slang.  Ship Breaker is an original fast paced adventure that will be a winner with fans of The Hunger Games.

Genre:

Science Fiction

Steampunk

Interest Level:

Grades 7 and up

Similar Books:

The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

Uglies Scott Westerfeld

Subjects/Themes:

Recycling

Climate Change

Awards/Honors:

ALA Notable Children’s Books 2011

Andre Norton Award 2010 Nominee

Booklist Top 10 Books on the Environment for Youth 2011

Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth 2011

Cybil Award 2010 Finalist

Green Earth Book Award 2011 Finalist

Michael L. Printz Award Winner 2011

National Book Award Finalist 2010

Publisher’s Weekly Best Children’s Books 2010

YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011

YALSA Top 10 Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011

Author’s Website:

http://windupstories.com/

Annotation:

In the future Gulf Coast region Nailer works as a ship breaker scavenging useful materials from abandoned oil tankers until his world changes and he meets Nita the wealthy survivor of a shipwreck.

Book Talking Ideas:

Nailer spends his days working in the dark, dank crawl spaces of old abandoned oil tankers looking to scrap metal to be recycled.  In Nailer’s world the polar ice caps have melted drowning whole cities along the Gulf Coastline, the oil has run out and many other natural resources are rare and in high demand.  Nailer thinks he has struck it rich when he discovers a shipwreck, but soon he is on the run with the wealthy teenage survivor of the shipwreck, Nita.  Nita and Nailer feel across land and sea in search of an ally to help them.

Why I chose to include this book:

I chose Ship Breaker because it was a fast paced adventure that kept me wanting to read from the first page.