Teen Green Reads

They Came From Below Format: paperback book Citation: Nelson, Blake. They came from below , New York: Tor Books, 2007. Grade level: 7 – 12 Annotation: When 16-year-old Emily and her best friend Reese are on summer vacation in Cape Cod, they have a chance meeting with Steve and Dave, two boys who check all the right boxes. Cute, mysterious and cool, Steve and Dave seem too good to be true. However, a strange creature has been spotted in the lake during their quaint vacation, could Steve and Dave be behind this weird happenstance? They Came from Below is a fast-paced, witty and quirky sci-fi book about how a creature from the deep can help fight to save our planet from a pollution and climate catastrophe. Find out more on Goodreads.

The Devil's Breath Format: paperback book Citation: Gilman, David. The devil’s breath , New York: Random House Children’s Books 2008. Grade level: 7 – 9 Annotation: The Devil’s Breath is the award-winning first book of the Danger Zone series. Lightning-paced and action-packed, The Devil’s Breath tells the story of Max Gordon, a fifteen-year-old whose life is changed forever when his environmentalist father has seemingly disappeared while working on an ecology project in Namibia, Africa. After a narrow escape from an assassin sent to eliminate his family, Max is hell-bent on finding his father, and unravels a major ecological disaster on the way. This novel is a no-holds-barred action adventure that has strong green-themes and explores the people who seek to destroy our environment for their own personal gain.  Find out more on Goodreads.

Empty Format: paperback book Citation: Weyn, Suzanne. Empty , New York: Scholastic Press, 2010. Grade level: 7 - 10 Annotation: In the not-so-far future, mankind has begun running out of resources while the climate crisis has continued to wreak havoc on our environment. When the US begins to start a war with Venezuela over the dwindling oil supply, food supplies run low and everyone seems to be looking out for their own survival; ‘Empty’ tells the stories of three teens trying to make their way through this adversity. This realistic setting for dystopian fiction sets the scene for our own world in a few years and many of the issues presented in ‘Empty’ can be seen on the news today. Find out more on Goodreads.

Ship Breaker Format: paperback book Citation: Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship breaker , New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2010. Grade level: 7 - 12 Annotation: In ‘Ship Breaker’, Bacigalupi writes a brilliantly fleshed out, post-climate change apocalypse world in an action sci-fi novel that is gritty, complex and compelling. In this world society has crumbled and fossil fuels have been used up. 17 year old Nailer scavenges from grounded oil tankers to meet his drug-addicted and violent father’s quotas, but when he finds a young girl trapped on one of these tankers Nailer must make a choice between turning this girl in for money or taking a chance and saving her. Fast-paced and suspenseful, this novel is a must read for any dystopian fiction lovers out there. Find out more on Goodreads.

Watership Down Format: paperback book Citation: Adams, Richard. Watership down , New York: Macmillan, 1974. Grade level: 9 – 12 Annotation: An enduring classic and the first in a groundbreaking duology, ‘Watership Down’ tells the story of a band of rabbits fleeing from the destruction of their warren, and the men that destroyed it. When Fiver, a young rabbit foresees great danger approaching his home, he, his brother and nine other rabbits escape Watership Down in search of somewhere new, along the way the gang meets many a danger. Ultimately, ‘Watership Down’ is a novel about surviving in a changing world and the destruction of our environment. I shall leave you with one quote that bears remarking, “Men will never rest till they’ve spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals.” Find out more on Goodreads.

The Beast of Cretacea Format: paperback book Citation: Strasser, Todd. The beast of Cretacea , New York: Candlewick Press, 2015. Grade level: 6 – 12 Annotation: A modern re-telling of Moby Dick with a sci-fi slant, ‘The beast of Cretacea’ is both a cautionary environmental novel as well as a coming-of-age story. A young Ishmael leaves an Earth on the verge of ruin and finds himself harvesting resources for Mad Captain Ahab, a man who has a crazed obsession to kill a great sea creature, the Great Terrafin. As Ishmael’s journey continues, he finds out the real reason for the destruction of Earth’s ecology. Filled with futuristic technology, a courageous protagonist and a masterfully crafted world, ‘the beast of Cretacea’ is a contemporary novel with echoes of an old-maritime adventure. Find out more on Goodreads.