Cleo Porter and the Body Electric

September 1, 2020
A mission to save a life pushes a young girl to discover the world around her. In the not-too-distant future, the world goes into permanent self-isolation, with families living in massive tower blocks, sealed in separate apartments. Their only access to the outside is through drone-delivered supplies that arrive via tubes in their kitchens. While studying for her first test in the surgical candidate track, 12-year-old Cleo, who is White, receives a package with the right address, but the wrong name. Opening it and finding much-needed medical supplies, the young doctor-to-be breaks out of her apartment to try to locate and save the life of the medicine's rightful recipient. Accompanied by her electronic instruction tablet, Ms. VAIN, and a small observation drone, Cleo learns more about her world--inside the apartment and out--than she expected. Current readers will immediately draw parallels with the Covid-19 pandemic, but they'll also find a well-constructed and enjoyable adventure. The theme of storytelling, particularly the tale of "Little Red Riding Hood," is interwoven expertly. While the resolution may be wrapped a little too neatly for some readers, the thought-provoking material generated by questions of isolation, community, and privilege may make up for this. This novel would work especially well as an extended read-aloud, a choice for classroom discussion, or a book club selection. A topical read that's worth the attention. (Science fiction. 10-12)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2020
Grades 4-6 In this timely addition to the plague novel shelves, the (seeming) misdelivery of a life-saving medicine prompts a sheltered preteen to leave her apartment for the very first time. It's been 50 years since a deadly pandemic drove millions of fearful survivors to isolate themselves within huge, entirely automated, doorless complexes. The only people Cleo has ever met are her loving parents, and the only way in or out of her home is the delivery chute through which food and other goods arrive. Nonetheless, she screws her courage to the sticking place and forces her way through it and into a frighteningly immense and (she supposes) contaminated outside. There are huge holes in the logic of both plot and setting, but so smart, funny, and vivid are the characters in this futuristic odyssey that few readers are likely to care. Cleo especially is a winner, gifted with wells of empathy and determination deep enough to weather wild mood swings, bouts of debilitating terror, life-threatening hazards, and more than one extreme challenge to her comfortable worldview.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

September 28, 2020
Burt (Greetings from Witness Protection!) writes a humorous, humanistic sci-fi adventure set in the near future, after the outbreak of a quickly mutating flu pushed citizens into sealed apartments. From her own home, 12-year-old Cleo Porter has, with the assistance of her AI virtual instructor, been training since age six to become a remote drone surgeon like her mother. But when a mysterious package of essential medicine is improbably delivered to her unit, the family’s careful plans are thrown into disarray—rather than prepare for a monumental test, Cleo assumes responsibility for getting the medicine to the rightful patient. In her effort to save a life, she escapes not only her unit but an entire massive complex of apartments and encounters ominous drones, rat-infested compost heaps, and the reality that there is much more outside her walls than the threat of disease. Through the eyes of a fierce and compassionate protagonist, Burt mixes snippets of science into the action, adding a layer of nonfiction to this entertaining, speculative look at selflessness and integrity. Ages 8–12. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group.

Starred review from January 8, 2021

Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Cleo lives in an apartment with her brilliant surgeon mother and virtual designer father. Cleo's entire world is the sealed apartment and the online world she visits a few hours a day for school and social gatherings. Her mother performs surgeries daily via drone utilizing the same virtual reality. Cleo's world is turned upside-down when she receives a mysterious package meant for someone else-the system does not allow for mistakes. The package contains very important medicine, without which, the true recipient will die. Despite her looming medical studies test, Cleo dives into the mystery of who the medicine belongs to and how she can get it delivered. Finding nothing online, she decides to do the unthinkable: leave her apartment and deliver the medicine herself. When Cleo is accidentally dumped outside the massive apartment building into the real world, she must use all of her strength to get back into a building designed to keep everyone and everything out, and save someone's life while she's at it. Cleo is exactly the hero today's readers need. She is plucky, tenacious, loyal, and funny. Readers of all backgrounds will relate to the virtual learning and isolation. VERDICT A fun and entertaining adventure, highly recommended for fans of Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember.-Terry Ann Lawler, Burton Barr Lib., Phoenix

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.