PUCKER by Melanie Gideon
    Category:  Fantasy
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  5/18/06
    Publisher:  Razorbill
    Reviewed by:  Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
    Rating:  5 Stars


    PUCKER is, without a doubt, one of the best books I've ever read.  And since I've read and reviewed over 250
    books since August 2005 alone, I have a lot to compare it to!

    The book is probably best described as a contemporary fantasy, but it's so much more than that.  The story centers
    around Thomas Quicksilver, who at seventeen has spent most of his life with only his mother and a few close friends
    as acquaintances.  Burned on the face as a young child, he's known as "Pucker" to his cruel classmates, and his only
    living relative is his mother, a woman who tells the future for her clients from her bed, where she spends all of her
    time.  But what none of those clients, or his best friend, Patrick, knows, is that Thomas Quicksilver has more in his
    past than the trauma of a childhood accident.

    For Thomas and his mother, Serena, were once Isaurians.  They lived in a world where technological advances were
    not pursued, where every step of a person's life was foretold by the Seers.  Not just cataclysmic events such as
    earthquakes or blizzards, but daily ones such as avoiding a street with a large pothole that could twist an ankle or what
    a family would have for dinner the following week.  For Serena and her husband, William, the calm, patented life of
    Isaura wasn't enough--they longed for their only child, Thomas, to have a normal life, one filled with love, desire,
    regret, and the unknown.  In return for their wayward thinking, Serena and William were stripped of their Seerskins,
    the outer layer of skin that allowed them to foretell the future.  As William lay dead on the kitchen floor, Serena barely
    conscious, young Thomas was overwhelmed with grief--and accidentally allowed a fire to rage in their home, burning
    his face.

    Exiled to Earth for their sins, Serena and Thomas began a new life, free from the safety and monotony of Isaura.  But
    Serena, minus her Seerskin, discovers that she can still tell the future on Earth--and the gift, or curse, is much stronger
    than it ever was in Isaura.  Her only hope to save her life, and her sanity, is for Thomas to return to Isaura for her
    Seerskin, which she hopes will dampen the ability to foretell the future on Earth.

    For Thomas, this means entering his homeland as one of the Changed--humans with lives bad enough to be offered a
    chance of redemption in the land of Isaura.  His only goal is to find his mother's Seerskin and return to Earth before
    she dies, but he's soon sidetracked by his new, healed face--and by the lovely Phaidra, a rebellious girl who knows
    there's more to the Changed than the Isaurians are letting on.

    I know I've made PUCKER sound a lot more complicated than it really is.  One of the reasons I enjoyed the book so
    much is that, although a fantasy, it's easy to follow along and relate to the characters.  It is, basically, a story about
    love, about forgiveness, about identity and the desire to be loved for who and what you are.  It is, in a word, simply
    amazing.  Pick up a copy today, and I promise that you'll soon be as involved in the life of Thomas Quicksilver as I
    was; that you'll be wishing for a happy ending for this unbelievably courageous and brave young man.
Pucker
by Melanie Gideon