Iceling

October 10, 2016
All her life, Lorna has known that her younger sister, Callie—one of the orphans Lorna’s scientist father found at sea and brought to the U.S.—is different. Callie has fits and doesn’t speak, just like the other rescued children, now teenagers, that Lorna calls icelings and that the government that monitors them calls Arctic Recovery Orphans. But Lorna loves Callie, and she believes that Callie loves her, too. Then Callie’s fits worsen, and one day she builds a detailed model of an island and makes it clear that she needs to go there. Seventeen-year-old Lorna and Callie hit the road with another set of siblings, Stan and Ted, heading north and meeting other iceling-sibling pairs as they travel. Stephenson’s intriguing debut, first in a planned series, is a combination road trip story, SF tale, and adventure yarn. The occasional plot hole and an abrupt ending (even knowing that another book is on the way) don’t take too much away from a story that delivers action, conspiracy, and betrayal alongside a meditation on love, family connection, and humanity. Ages 12–up.

September 15, 2016
Discovered by scientists in the Canadian Arctic and later adopted, a group of speechless but intense and powerful teens compel their older siblings to return them to that site a decade and a half later. With their scientist parents in Ecuador, Lorna, 17, is responsible for her sister, Callie, an Arctic Recovery Orphan. Constructing an ingenious model of their destination (a la Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Callie persuades Lorna to take her there. Lorna and Stan, whose ARO brother is similarly obsessed, shoulder the task. Packing snacks, warm clothes, and phone charger, the four leave Pennsylvania--guided by the AROs (Lorna names them Icelings)--and head northeast, meeting and joining with other sibling groups along the way. At a police checkpoint, only those traveling with AROs are permitted to cross into Canada. One driver, Bobby, might know what's at stake, but he's not sharing. Lorna, Stan, and the rest, mystified but loyal, follow their siblings' leads. Readers will be equally confused: by the strange geography (Meat Cove, Nova Scotia, is nowhere near the Arctic) and confusing, contradictory plot. Long interior monologues fail to explain Lorna's senseless--at times, risibly so--choices. Otherworldly discoveries are rendered in mundane imagery, while the identically pale, light-eyed, fair-haired Icelings suggest pallid takes on John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) and its comic-book and video game progeny. Narrator Lorna indicates no racial distinction between her and her sister, leading readers to believe she is white. Faced with the inconsistent plotting, indifference to geography and climate, and sloppy execution, readers are more likely to abandon this series opener halfway than to wait for Volume 2. (Science fiction. 12-16)

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November 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-This new, interesting addition to the sci-fi YA fiction world follows the life-changing adventures of Lorna and her adopted sister, Callie. Lorna is a kindhearted 17-year-old caregiver to mute Iceling Callie, who is from a mysterious land. The teen longs to be the best sister possible, so she doesn't hesitate to take Callie to an unknown, distant island for help. They're joined by a new guy friend, Stan, and his Iceling brother, Ted. While the premise is intriguing, the novel's uneven execution, including jarring sentence structures, will make it difficult for readers to stay engaged. Lorna is presented as a teen who can think about nothing but her sister and isn't developed further, while the secondary characters are also not fully fleshed out. In addition, Lorna's inner thoughts as well as conversations among characters are repetitive and sluggishly paced and may provide a further challenge for readers. VERDICT Purchase only for collections in dire need of sci-fi fiction.-Danielle Jacobs, Las Vegas Clark County Library District

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 Lorna and Callie have been sisters for 16 years, ever since Lorna was a baby and her scientist father found Callie, along with a hundred other infants, alone on an Arctic island. Theories abound as to how the babies ended up abandoned, but all Lorna knows is that Callie, who has never spoken and sometimes has conniption fits, is her sister. But when Callie and other Icelings, as Lorna has dubbed the Arctic orphans, begin trying to get back to the island where they were found, it falls to their siblingslike Lornato get them there. What begins as eerie sci-fi soon takes a sharp turn into an action-adventure thriller, a change of course that might discourage some readers. Those who stick with it will be hooked by the cliff-hanger ending that comes with enough loose threads to promise a sequel. This is a poetic and unusual debut with a wry, loyal narrator and one ultimate truth: what makes family, as Lorna well knows, isn't always blood.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)