Westerfeld, Scott
LEVIATHAN
New York : Simon Pulse, 2009
IL YA
ISBN 1416971734

(2 booktalks)

The world is on the brink of its first world war, but it’s not exactly how you've learned about it. Sure, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife have been assassinated, and a global conflict is brewing. But this one is between two very different factions: The Clankers, who build war machines; and The Darwinists, who rely on the development of new species. Young Prince Aleksander, the would-be heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne, is pulled from his bed in the middle of the night following his parents’ murder. As a Clanker, he pilots a war machine – the Cyklop Stormwalker – to escape his own followers who have turned on him. Facing enemies at every turn, uncovering loyalties or foes becomes even more difficult when he meets Deryn, who has recently joined the air service and is serving aboard the Leviathan, the Darwinists’ flying whale ship. Like Aleksander, Deryn is also in constant danger. She has disguised herself as a boy in order to join the service, and is in constant fear of being discovered.   Although from different factions, is it possible for these two teenagers to be more than enemies? The answer is found in a fantastical voyage in a very different world history.  (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award nominee, 2011)

Booktalk #2

Europe at war! The battle between steam driven mechanical technology and DNA-altered, fabricated animal technology has finally come to a head. It's 1914 and the Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is dead – assassinated. His son, and heir, Alek, is fleeing from his own people in a clanker, called a Cyklop Stormwalker, with a few loyal men. On the other side of the ocean, a girl named Deryn hides her gender and signs on as a midshipman on the huge British battle beast, the Leviathan. But when a battle with the Germans causes Leviathan to crash near Alek's hideout, the two cross paths and find that they must work together to survive.

(booktalk by Jocelyn Rydel, Sno-Isle Regional Library System) (Washington Evergreen YA Book Award)