The Chaos

May 1, 2011

Gr 8 Up-This sequel to Num8ers (Scholastic, 2010) doesn't disappoint. Fifteen-year-old Adam, the son of Jem and her lover for too brief a time, Spider, has inherited his mother's ability to see peoples' death dates in their eyes. Unfortunately, the loss of Jem to cancer causes him to retreat into isolation and rage. Things only get worse when his father's grandmother brings him back to her London flat and enrolls him in school where he begins to notice that almost everyone he meets has the same death date-01012027, which is only six months away. Then he meets Sarah, sensitive, artistic, and pregnant, who is fighting her own demons. Together they must learn to trust and heal and, hopefully, survive the inevitable cataclysm. The Chaos is every bit as good as the first novel in the trilogy. The premise of unavoidable disaster is chillingly plausible as Ward incorporates elements of global warming and increasing seismic activity-which hits just a bit too close to home given the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2011
Grades 8-12 Adam has the unwelcome gift of being able to look into a persons eyes and see exactly what date and how they will die. When he sees too many people with the death date of 01012027, he decides to go public. His story alternates chapters with a second narrator, Sarah, an abused girl pregnant with her fathers child who sees the future in terrifyingly detailed dreams. Ward delicately weaves the threads of their futures together with love, fear, and guilt. Although not as artfully composed as the first title, Numbers (2010), this sequel again delivers an action-driven plot with a thoughtful meditation on the nature of prescience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)