de la Peña, Matt.
THE LIVING
New York : Delacorte, 2013
IL YA
ISBN 0385741200

(2 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

When Shy takes a summer job on a luxury cruise ship, it seems like a pretty cool way to make some money and maybe even enjoy himself a little thanks to good tips, free food, and a gorgeous co-worker named Carmen. It’s also a good way to take his mind off his worries, like his grandmother’s recent death from Romero Disease, a horrible new illness that’s been spreading on the mainland. But on his very first trip out, a passenger mumbles a few strange things to Shy and then jumps overboard right in front of him. Now Shy feels like his every move is being watched. As if that weren’t enough trouble, on his second trip a massive earthquake hits California and causes a tsunami that capsizes the cruise ship. Now Shy is faced with a fight not only for his own survival, but also for the survival of his new friends and the passengers. Plus, these “lucky” survivors are now adrift at sea with no food or water. But little does Shy imagine that if he ever sets foot on dry land again, everything might come back around to that mysterious stranger. And the fight to survive has only just begun … (Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA for  Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award, 2015)

Booktalk #2

What should have been an easy and enjoyable summer job on a cruise ship turns into a catastrophe for Shy Espinoza. It becomes a challenge of survival after natural disaster and disease outbreak cause the ship to wreck and throw society into chaos. The story evolves into a conspiracy plot when Shy finds himself on an island with time to ponder the mysterious passenger who gave him a strange message before committing suicide.  (Booktalk by the Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Committee)