Saving Sky

by Diane Stanley

Overview

Although the country is at war, terrorists strike at random, and widespread rationing is in effect, thirteen-year-old Sky Brightman is remarkably untouched by it all. She and her family live off the grid on sixty acres of rural New Mexico ranch land with chores to do, horses to ride, and no television or internet to bring disturbing news into their home.

But when a string of mysterious arrests begins and Sky's new friend, Kareem, becomes a target, she is finally forced to confront the world in all its complexity. With courage, ingenuity, and fierce determination, Sky meets injustice head-on and shows the tremendous impact one person can have on her community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061239076
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/12/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Diane Stanley is the author and illustrator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, which received three starred reviews, was named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and Book Links Lasting Connections, and was an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Cup and the Crown; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American Museum's Arab American Book Award and a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; and A Time Apart. Well known as the author and illustrator of award-winning picture-book biographies, she is the recipient of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children and the Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award for her body of work.

Ms. Stanley has also written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales: The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. dianestanleybooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

In this provocative title, award-winning author Stanley asks young readers to consider what courage might look like in an America under psychological and physical siege. The recognizable adult characters, from the truly good to the fearful to the insidiously evil, are drawn straight from today’s headlines, while the young people manifest a courage few can emulate. Readers will have much to discuss . . . beautifully written.

Booklist (starred review)

Against a backdrop of war by terrorism, with suicide bombers successfully destroying refineries and wreaking havoc with the U.S. power grid, the Brightman family battles the forces of prejudice, fear, and hate in Sante Fe in the not-too-distant future. Thirteen-year-old Sky's parents have created an alternative lifestyle on their solar-powered, sustainable farm. Aiming to foster peaceful coexistence with nature, they incorporate spiritual rituals into their daily lives, such as offering blessings for the terrorists' victims and celebrating the winter solstice, when "Light will begin to drive out the darkness." Stanley (Bella at Midnight) smoothly blends old-fashioned, contemporary, and futuristic story elements: Sky rides a horse-drawn sled for fun, carries a cell phone for emergencies, and protests against the internment of Middle Eastern neighbors, which has become official government policy. The personal becomes political when Sky's mother's colleague is detained, and the family decides to hide the man's son, Sky's classmate. This thought-provoking novel explores both the frightening power of mob mentality and fear tactics, along with hopeful possibilities offered when individuals take courageous stands for justice. Ages 10–up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

This will certainly raise poignant questions about a world that is only very slightly unfamiliar and about the way readers would respond in similar circumstances.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"In this provocative title, award-winning author Stanley asks young readers to consider what courage might look like in an America under psychological and physical siege. The recognizable adult characters, from the truly good to the fearful to the insidiously evil, are drawn straight from today’s headlines, while the young people manifest a courage few can emulate. Readers will have much to discuss . . . beautifully written."

Booklist

This will certainly raise poignant questions about a world that is only very slightly unfamiliar and about the way readers would respond in similar circumstances.

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

Gr 5–8—Living on a New Mexico ranch, Sky Brightman and her family are largely removed from the disturbing news of the war on terror and are sheltered from images of death and destruction as suicide bombers wage war on the United States. Then, when Kareem, a seventh-grade Middle Eastern classmate, is picked on by bullies, and his doctor father is detained by federal agents, Sky resolves to stand by the boy. In a scene that stretches credulity, Sky and her mother collaborate to remove Kareem surreptitiously from school. They safeguard him in their home and build a secret place for him in the barn in case he should need one. Kareem goes into hiding when suspicious Homeland Security agents come looking for him. In the meantime, an attack knocks out the power over a good portion of the country. When Homeland Security comes again, Kareem is spotted and knows he must turn himself in; the president has ordered the DHS to hold detainees until the war ends. Four months later, at the state's Land of Enchantment essay award ceremony, Sky reads from Kareem's poignant journal and is heartened by the audience's reception. The mood of the novel is muted by the spare detail. The main characters are well rendered and likable, and, in her portrayal of the earth-centered, nurturing Brightman family, Stanley succeeds in delivering the message that hope trumps fear.—Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT

School Library Journal

In Stanley's latest, the post-9/11 future has taken a dark turn. The war on terror has gone on for years, causing food rationing and an oil shortage. Terrorists have ramped up attacks on U.S. soil, and the constant red-alert days have kept anxiety levels on high. Then it happens: Homeland Security starts rounding up "suspects"--anyone of Middle-Eastern descent--and placing them in detention centers. Standing against the fear and hatred is seventh grader Sky Brightman, whose unconventional, off-the-grid upbringing has given her a belief that love conquers all. The Brightman family's 60-acre, self-sufficient New Mexican ranch, isolated from the constant news feeds from television, radios and the Internet, is a balm, as are their ecumenical daily blessings to heal the troubled universe. When officers come after her classmate Kareem, Sky resolves to rescue him. This page-turner subtly builds an all-too-believable near future, sowing just enough clues to keep readers informed and rarely descending into blunt exposition. It skillfully captures the irrational fear of a public under siege while giving kids a modern-day, almost-just-like-them female hero who champions hope. Inspiring. (Thriller. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews

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