Ashland, Monk & Nigel Ashland (text) Jeff Nentrup (illus.): The Sky Village: Kaimira: Book One Candlewick.

ASHLAND, Monk & Nigel Ashland (text) Jeff Nentrup (illus.) The Sky Village: Kaimira: Book One Candlewick, 2008 366pp $24.95 ISBN 9780763635244 SCIS 1381179

In China, 12-year-old Mei's mother has been kidnapped by meks (mechanical beings) so her father sends her to safely in the Sky Village, a community of linked hot-air balloons. He gives Mei her mother's Tree Book--through which Mei discovers she can communicate by vision and voice with Rom. Rom lives far across the world, scavenging through the ruins of Las Vegas with his little sister Riley and avoiding attack from marauding packs of wild animals. Rom finds his crazed and feral father's hidden Tree Book and discovers he can see and talk to Mei--but when Riley is dragged underground by mechanical/beast hybrids, Rom sets off to rescue her and is himself enmeshed in a dangerous world of gladiatorial combat. Set in a time after the Trinary Wars between humans, beasts and meks which have left the world in ruins, this engaging story reveals the alternating adventures of Mei and Rom.

In the Sky Village Mei learns to fearlessly rope-walk between the balloons, overcomes her dread of birds, dresses up for a wedding and learns to dance--while the action-packed, more violent underground world involves Rom in physical fights against beasts and meks. Both protagonists have to learn how to control and balance their unused mental powers, to fight against authority and betrayals, and gain maturity. While conceptually intriguing, The Sky Village presented some questions. This Book One of a proposed five is enlivened by double-page black and white illustrations and forty pages of 'Artifacts'--diary entries and stories giving background to the disparate societies, a glossary and codes. An entertaining new fantasy series for middle-school readers. CM