This book was given to me by a close friend in the sixth grade—and I’m super embarrassed that I haven’t cracked it open until now.

Read: May 13 – May 19, 2024

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Futuristic
Audience: Children’s, Middle-grade
Book contains: bounty hunter, mentions of experimentation

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

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A Fascinating World!

Eva Nine has lived in an underground sanctuary all her life, being raised by her robot Muthr, but when a bounty hunter invades their home, hoping to capture her, she must flee to the surface for the first time—and doesn’t find anything that she expects. Alien life forms are all around her. Is she even on Earth?

As I mentioned, this book was gifted to me by a friend when I was in elementary school, and though this friend was also an avid reader and I trusted her taste, for some reason I never got around to reading it. Maybe because the book was so thick, maybe because I wasn’t sure about the characters from the cover/interior artwork. I couldn’t just get rid of it, though, so I finally got around to reading it. And it was well worth the wait!

DiTerlizzi uses third person limited to follow the twelve-year-old girl, Eva Nine, seemingly the only human left on the planet. It shows the world through her eyes as a child learning new things and not always making the best choices. While other characters accompany her, the POV doesn’t focus on anyone else.

Since I couldn’t find any means of listening along, I read this book the old-fashioned way. It didn’t take too long, though I finished it on Sunday instead of Friday. Luckily, as a children’s book, it had large text, and each chapter began with a full two-page spread of artwork by the author. The intimidating thickness of this book doesn’t accurately reflect its length.

Eva is a very interesting main character. She is headstrong and a little bit naïve, but I love the fact that the adult characters, who are meant to look after her, are also out of their depth. Muthr, the robot, is programmed with all sorts of knowledge and so she thinks she knows what’s best, but in this new and mysterious world, she doesn’t. Rovender, their companion, at the same time, is set in his ways and only with Eva’s help does he learn to adapt. It’s Eva’s adaptability that is her greatest strength. Though she knew nothing of the world above, she learns to survive and she’s not had so long of a life to be set in a specific method of doing things. She is also inventive and a fun character to follow.

The main trio of this journey (as shown on the front cover) have a balanced group dynamic as well. Eva met Rovender without Muthr around, and they bonded through a daring escape, becoming friends. Eva was raised by Muthr, and though Muthr is a robot, she is capable of emotions and loves Eva like a true mother (rather than just a caretaker). Eva loves Muthr in the same way, even if Muthr is overbearing at times with the “correct” way of doing things. The loving rivalry between Rovender and Muthr is the funniest, though. Without Eva holding them together, they’d have separated long ago, because Rovender doesn’t trust technology, and Muthr doesn’t trust what Rovender knows about the world. I loved watching their relationship change and grow as the plot moved on.

The writing was excellent for children. This book is for ages 10 and up, and I think it was fun and engaging for a younger audience. It wasn’t as much for me, an older reader, but I’m sure that if I’d read this back when I was a preteen, I’d have fallen in love. That said, I had a hard time putting this book down once I got to reading it.

This is one of those stories where the characters are on a quest. They’re doing a lot of travelling, but at no point did the pacing feel like it was dragging on. New situations and scenarios brought them from place to place, and the travel-time was decent but not overly extended. There was enough action and emotional scenes to balance one another out.

This is a trilogy, and while I’m not going to read book 2 right away, I put it (and book 3) on my list! It’s a story that I want to continue because it really tugged at my emotions so I highly recommend it for young readers—especially those who love art!

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