When you are an avid reader, or anyone who reads books at all, there comes a point when all of the stories start to blend together. You pick up, say, a new dystopian book at the store, and sigh, because you know it’ll just be a new version of The Hunger Games or Divergent or a million other books, with the same plot, same characters, same villains. It’s inevitable. Abhimanyu Sukhdial’s novella, Three Days Till EOC, is different. Sukhdial takes his writing down a road that few writers ever fully explore, with a unique plot, and unique themes. Three Days Till EOC is a piece of dystopian, climate change fiction. In the year 2100, the glaciers are gone and the ice caps have melted. Only 1,000 humans—known as the Earthlings—remain, and in three days is EOC (the End of Civilization), when monster storms will end all human life. The set up of the book makes it seem as though the fate of all humanity is sealed. But not quite. In fact, the Earthlings are able to take a flight to Mars, if they so wish, and continue their new lives there, without so much as a backward glance to Earth. However, the people who want to go to Mars are those who don’t care about trying to make change—even at the last minute—and don’t care about doing everything they can to stop EOC. The main characters of Three Days Till EOC are quite different. Graham Hori Alison is a scientist, one of the only ones left who is still dedicated to stopping EOC. Most of the other Earthlings don’t like Graham too much. They avoid him, calling him a “Junior Uncle Scrooge.” They don’t understand why he is so focused on stopping climate change when it is clearly unbeatable, or why he won’t go on a spaceship to Mars like everyone else. In an interview, I asked Sukhdial how he chose to design Graham as his main character. He replied, “I like a lot of vulnerable characters, not just characters who are really, really powerful. And so I wanted to create a regular human because I feel he [is] very relatable, and not just a person with superpowers and stuff.” Sukhdial’s story and characters are very relatable. While the plot does incorporate some cool sci-fi gadgetry—just enough to make it sufficiently futuristic—it stays true to itself, focusing on the topic of climate change and the people who work to stop it, which, unlike teleportation devices or time traveling train cars, are very real things. Graham and his friends, Shellie and Jackson, are persistent in their belief that they can save the world. They try, fail, and try again, working against the clock that ticks down to EOC. The themes that Three Days Till EOC contains are also what sets it apart from most other fiction in its genre. Sukhdial wanted to “convey a lot of messages.” Overall, he spreads a message of perseverance, teamwork, responsibility, and legacy. All of these ideas are ones that fit in very well with our current world, as well as in EOC’s world. How can we, in 2020, persevere against all of the obstacles that plague us as a planet? How can we work together to better our world? How can we be responsible for our mistakes as well as willing to accept them and overcome them? And finally, what will our legacy be? What mark will we leave on the world? In Three Days Till EOC, Sukhdial doesn’t just ask us these questions, but he shows how answering them may well be able to save the world. Three Days Till EOC by Abhi Sukhdial, 2020. Purchase a copy in the Stone Soup Store or on Amazon.
book review
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise, Reviewed by Grace, 11
Throughout my entire eleven years on this earth, a handful of books have truly spoken to me. One of these books is called The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. The story begins with the introduction of a twelve year old girl named Coyote Sunrise who lives on a school bus called Yager with her dad, Rodeo. They live in Yager because of a terrible incident that happened when Coyote was younger, in an attempt to run away from their painful past, her dad changed both of their names, (hence the reason she’s now called Coyote), moved into a new house, er, school bus, and forgot about their old life in Washington State. They use Yager to travel around 47 of the 50 states in the USA (subtracting Hawaii, Alaska, and the state Coyote’s dad never wants to see again). However, one day, Coyote is on the phone with her grandmother when she hears the worst news ever: the park that she and her now deceased mother and sisters used to play on is getting torn up and turned into a parking lot! Now, you’re probably wondering, “what could be so bad about that?” Well, before her mother and sisters passed away, they created a “memory box,” which is basically just a time capsule in which they placed memories, photos, drawings, and strands of hair, then buried it in that park. Coyote doesn’t want to lose the last thing she has left of her mother and sisters, so she’ll have to create an insane plan to travel to Washington without Rodeo knowing. Will she make it to the memory box in time? Or will it get destroyed forever? With the help of her new friends (and pets!), can Coyote pull this off? Well, I’m not going to spoil anything for you, so you’ll have to find out for yourself! I’m 100% percent positive that if you like heart wrenching and meaningful yet hilarious stories that take you on an emotional rollercoaster, you will enjoy The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. Henry Holt & Company, 2019. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Restart by Gordon Korman, Reviewed by Serena, 9
I was looking around the library for something to read when my eye caught sight of a book with a bright orange cover. I pulled it off the bookshelf and found out that the book’s name was Restart and it was written by an author named Gordan Korman. I tried to remember where I had heard about this book and that’s when it hit me—this was the book that lots of my classmates had been talking about. So I flipped over the book and read the blurb on the back cover. The story is about a boy named Chase who fell off a roof and landed on his head. He got a concussion and ended up in the hospital with amnesia. He barely remembered his own name. When he returns to school, he finds out that he used to be a jerk and a bully. He no longer has any interest in his old ways but it takes some time for the other kids to adjust to the new Chase and to learn to trust the former bully. This book has a strong theme of friendship. Friendship is important because if you don’t have any friends, you will be lonely. A true friend will stand up for you if you are being bullied. They will cheer you up if you are having a bad day. Your friends will worry about you if you are sick. Those are only some examples of a good friend. Restart made me think of a person in my school who enjoys bullying and teasing other students. I used to be friends with this bully and then I started getting tired of her being mean to other people so I stopped being friends with her and decided to stand up for the people getting bullied by her. I discovered that I really liked being friends with people who have a kind heart and that we had a lot more in common. I really enjoyed reading this book and I hope that by reading this, you will like it too. Something unique that I liked about this book is that each chapter is written from a different person’s perspective: Chase’s, his victim Joel Weber’s, the victim’s twin sister Shoshonna Weber, and many more. I highly recommend this book because it has lots of action and it shows what it’s like to be a bully and what it’s like to be bullied. If you want to find out how Chase Ambrose finds his life, read this realistic fiction book called Restart by Gordan Korman. Restart by Gordon Korman. Scholastic, 2018. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
