Zenith
by Julie Bertagna

    ZENITH by Julie Bertagna
    Category:  Science Fiction
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  3/17/09
    Publisher:  Walker Books
    Reviewed by:  JodiG.
    Rating:  5 Stars


    Once again, Mara is setting sail, fleeing from one unstable place to the promise of others. Again she is headed north
    and again she is bringing bedraggled and hopeful survivors with her. Everyone is searching for the same thing. A
    safe place. A home. Land.

    In a world where global warming has melted all of the polar ice caps and the world has been flooded, there doesn’t
    seem to be much to hope for anymore. Mara led her family and friends north only to find that the New World city
    of New Mungo wasn’t the salvation they had hoped for. Mara’s cyberworld friend, Fox, has stayed behind to
    battle the corruption, while she sails north with Rowan, the Treenesters, the Urchins, and other escapees from New
    Mungo in search of the land Mara is sure exists.    

    Along the way, Mara will meet Tuck, a boy who has only ever lived on the sea. He lives on a floating “city” of
    connected boats, barges, and bridges, among people with a history of piracy. The navigational course that Fox
    programmed for Mara’s ship didn’t include such a civilization - and the ship causes damage to Tuck’s people. He
    joins his people in pursuing the great ship with vengeance in his mind.

    But, Tuck’s people aren’t the biggest threat facing Mara and the refugees of New Mungo. The safety of a distant
    land may also offer more danger than they ever imagined. And the very act of living is a hard-earned
    accomplishment as lives are won and lost in this inhospitable new world.

    ZENITH is an exciting sequel to EXODUS; I found it to be even more intense and thrilling than the first novel. Julie
    Bertagna continues to describe a world that could be all too real if threats of global warming aren't taken to heart.