Sky Jumpers
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In this thrilling sci-fi adventure, epic danger and impossible odds are no match for one girl's courage! Twelve-year-old Hope lives in White Rock, a town of inventors struggling to recover from World War III. But adventurous Hope is terrible at inventing. She would much rather sneak off to cliff dive into the Bomb’s Breath, the deadly band of air that surrounds the town. When bandits invade White Rock to steal its greatest invention—priceless antibiotics—the town is left with a heartbreaking choice: hand over the medicine and die from disease, or die fighting the bandits. Help lies in a neighboring town, but the bandits count everyone fourteen and older each hour. Now Hope and her friends Aaren and Brock are only ones who can escape through the Bomb’s Breath. For once, the daring and rebelliousness that usually get Hope into trouble might just save them all. A Texas Library Association’s Bluebonnet Award Selection “Eddleman brings a strong sense of atmosphere to this post-apocalyptic coming-of-age piece, and the underlying message—that it’s possible to contribute in unexpected ways—is a positive one.” —Publishers Weekly
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2 primary books#1 in Sky Jumpers
Sky Jumpers is a 2-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 2013 with contributions by Peggy Eddleman.
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When the prospect of a Middle Grade post-apocalyptic book was presented to me, I was over the moon. I'm a huge fan of MG fiction, but it seems like there's not a lot of it out there that stems into areas like this. Maybe it's because post-apocalyptic worlds aren't exactly happy places, but that just made me more excited to see how Peggy Eddleman would handle this in her debut novel.
What first struck me as odd was the fact that the science aspect of this book really doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm all for suspending disbelief to enjoy a book. If people can fly, and you explain to me why that's true, I'll happily follow along. In this case, Sky Jumpers tried its best to make sense of a world where very few people remain, and invention is the only thing that matters besides survival. I was tossed into a world where only primitive technology remains, and people put a heavy-handed emphasis on invention. If you don't invent, or you can't invent, you're an outcast. Or, you're our main character. Somehow she seems to be the only one who falls into this category.
That being said, I could have let most of that go, except that the questions that I had kept compounding. Characters in MG novels do all manner of amazing things. They set off on epic quests, save villages, and most of the time all by themselves. Nonetheless, my mind simply wouldn't wrap itself around the fact that Hope was in this role. Setting off into a blizzard with your very injured best friend and his five year old sister just doesn't make sense. Add in the fact that “Bomb's Breath”, the very thing that kills people who try to enter the valley and is their only protection from outside, can be walked through by simply holding your breath? I'm so very confused.
Truthfully, this was a quick enough read. Hope and her friends were well written, and I could actually see the twelve year old persona in their thoughts and actions. That's where my enjoyment of this story hit a wall though. There was too much that just didn't mesh. I think if this were a Fantasy story, something where we're encouraged to let go of anything true (like scientific fact), I would have liked this more.
