Dig Too Deep

February 15, 2016
A teen activist takes on Big Coal. When 17-year-old Liberty Briscoe's mother is arrested for taking part in a protest that turned violent, Lib reluctantly leaves her exclusive school in Washington, D.C., and moves back to Ebbotsville, Kentucky, to live with her grandmother. She's shocked by how frail her granny has become and even more so by the neon-orange well water that pours out of her faucet. The water's gone funny since Peabody Mining took the top off a nearby mountain, but it's been tested and shown to be safe to drink. Liberty has her doubts, especially after her granny is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Along with Dobber, the lumbering son of a local meth addict, and snarky Ashleigh, niece to the owner of Peabody Mining, she sets out to discover the truth and extract revenge. Lib is a finely-drawn character, and the dialogue and pacing of this debut are strong. Less well-developed is the tension between Lib and what she calls her Former Mother. The evil mine owner strays too far into subhuman territory, and the plot--adolescent environmentalists brave Big Coal--has been seen too often. There must be another story to tell about Appalachia. A skillful rendition of a trope. (Fiction. 14-18)

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February 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-Liberty Briscoe has to move from Washington, DC, to the outskirts of Ebbotsville, KY, because her single mom is in jail for a protest gone wrong. Liberty has to go to a new school during her junior year, and she knows no one her age. However, she is looking forward to living with her grandmother. Life in Ebbotsville is an adjustment. Granny is sick, there's a mountaintop removal mine nearby, and the water coming from the faucets is orange. Liberty struggles with taking care of Granny, keeping up in school, and living on food stamps. She is convinced the mine is the reason why Granny and most of the people living on the mountain are sick, no matter who says the water is safe for drinking. As she starts to battle the mine, which provides jobs for the people living in town, she finds that drinking the water is not the only dangerous thing she could be doing. Told from Liberty's point of view, the story starts slow but picks up the pace as the teen starts to take action against the mine. The secondary characters are distinct from one another, but the focus is on Liberty and her family. The author brings important environmental issues to light without being didactic. VERDICT Recommended for fans of Carl Hiassen.-Natalie Struecker, Atlantic Public Library, IA

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