When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.
The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.
Until the taps run dry.
Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.
When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.
The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.
Until the taps run dry.
Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.--from the publisher
400 pages 978-1481481960 Ages 12 and up
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On Saturday, June 4th, the faucet makes weird coughing and wheezing sounds and Mom just stands there at the kitchen sink holding the dog's bowl waiting. No water shows up. That's the beginning. The beginning of Cosco not having water on its shelves, of swimming pools being dry, of neighbors and communities starting to unravel as people go into warfare mode to survive.
"Arizona and Nevada just backed out of the reservoir relief deal, " Mom relays to the family from the TV news reports. That means no more water will be flowing in the direction of California. Arizona and Nevada are dealing with a "flow crisis" otherwise known as a drought and they are at the point where they will be keeping all the water for their own residents. Where does that leave California?
At this point in time most of the country is focused on hurricane devastation happening far from the West Coast so no one really pays any attention to the first cries for help. Government resources are slow to respond.
In the middle of this disaster, a group of kids find themselves together trying to make sense of what is happening, where their parents are, is it as bad as they think it is?
Alyssa and her younger brother, Garrett join forces with Kelton, the survivalist who lives next door and are eventually joined by a couple of unknowns, Jacqui and Henry. Highways are gridlocked. Society's niceties fall away early on followed by laws until it becomes a matter of the survival of the fittest.
So tune into this Breaking News report. Global warming and climate change are the main characters in this call to action and awareness story that offers up a heartwrenching picture of what desperate times can deliver. If the breastfeeding mother cannot feed her baby, should the neighbors give her water? Will kindness and compassion survive such primitive conditions?
This team of kids is about to face choices they never expected. Can they escape from the community where they have lived and make it to Kelton's Promised Land? Will there ever be enough resources to support all the people or just the chosen ones?
Fascinating and all too real.
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
