Center for Teaching & Learning

Sam Temple just wants to surf. In his past school years he had been titled as "School Bus Sam" for taking the wheel after the bus driver suffered a sudden heart attack, but he never wanted to be a hero. He had just thought quickly. But when one night a small purple light appears out of nowhere in his bedroom, things start to change for Sam. And one school day, in the middle of history class, their ninth grade teacher "poofs." Gone. Soon the entire town of Perdido Beach realizes that everyone over the age of fourteen has disappeared and a large unbreakable barrier surrounds their area they call the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone). Kids are alone, with no one to tell them what to do, they can just watch TV all day and eat cookies. Until problems start to get bigger.
Once again, Sam has been the only one to save the day when a girl is mysteriously caught in a burning building and he is the only one brave enough to save her. But then he learns that she caused the fire by a scorching light that shoots from her hands. Soon other people acquire strange powers that are powerful and defensive weapons. Meanwhile, at the local boarding school, Coates Academy, a mile away, people have started to obtain powers, too. A battle begins between the "townies" and the kids at Coates. They have to fight to the death while surviving in the FAYZ.
I rated this book a ten because of the fast-moving pace and multi-genre plot build-up that creates cliffhangers at the end of every chapter. The least I could read was a hundred pages every day. Sam was a very unique, sensitive character whose thoughts and feelings were as real as my own as well as the other antagonists and protagonists in the book. Michael Grant uses an effective style that focuses on every character in a scene that helped me zoom through the book.
In this captivating yet vicious novel, Michael Grant has written a plot similar to Lord of the Flies and is keyed on survival and the power of working together. Although this book is 558 pages long, the plot continues in Michael Grant's second action novel Hunger.
Publisher: Harperteen, 558 pages
Josie