Reviewed by JodiG. for TeensReadToo.com

What if everything you've heard about global warming is true -- and we haven't done enough to change the course of events?

Mara is a fifteen-year-old girl who lives on the island of Wing. The polar ice caps are melting, flooding most of the earth. What is left of Mara's primitive island is rapidly being claimed by the rising tide. Among the ruins of an abandoned cyberworld Mara meets another, someone who promises her that there is a safe haven in the New World.

Mara convinces the people of her island that their only chance for survival is to sail north, where the sky cities can provide shelter against the rising storms and tides. However, they arrive to find that walls have been built around the city and that they are just a few of the refugees who are gathered around, hoping for entry. Life in the boat camp is a grim existence. Illness, hunger and death have penetrated the lives of Mara's group. Overwhelmed with guilt, Mara sets out to find a way to save her friends.

With a little help, Mara makes her way inside the gates and sets about to infiltrate the New World city of New Mungo. How can one girl face such insurmountable odds and save her people against a formidable adversary? Can she really take on an entire city to save her friends? If only she could find her cyberworld acquaintance, maybe he could help Mara.

EXODUS is a sobering reminder of the future we face if global warming is allowed to continue unchallenged. Julie Bertagna has presented a somber picture of what life may be like in the year 2099. She has balanced desperation with the enduring power of hope. When humans have hope, no challenge seems too difficult to face. The stark subject of the story is balanced with a fluid writing style that keeps you turning the pages and hoping for the best. EXODUS is already an international best seller and is being released to US readers in April 2008.

This is one of those stories that will stay with you forever. ( )

A very readable story, that posits a world devastated by the floods and storms that follow the melting of the polar icecaps, and poses a number of disconcerting questions as we follow a young girl's coming of age and attempt to improve circumstances for herself and her society.

If circumstances forced us to try to rebuild our society from the ground up, I wondered on reading this book, would we end up making the same mistakes all over again? To what extent are we as people culpable for the actions of our government?

Bertagna sensitively and thought-provokingly demonstrates the way in which fear for our own continued well-being can blunt our ability to feel empathy and compassion for others, and the way in which growing up in a society that is relatively well-off can leave people preoccupied with their own concerns and prevent them from seeing the bigger picture.

An enjoyable and thought-provoking read, and (it probably should be added) nowhere near as preachy as this review probably makes it sound!! ( )

Summary: In 2100, the Earth's ice caps have melted, the oceans have risen, and month-long fierce storms are the norm. The inhabitants of the tiny village island of Wing have moved further and further uphill as the seas rise, but there's no longer anywhere else to go. Fifteen-year Mara believes she has evidence of great sky cities built somewhere in the south, and even though the villagers are skeptical, they have no other choice - they head for the one they believe to be closest. However, once they get there, they find that the high-tech city has equally high security, and it isn't accepting new refugees. Now, it seems as though it will be up to Mara to find a way to get inside the city, and somehow save her people... and maybe the whole of humanity.

Review: I can't quite decide if this book is horrifically frightening, or upliftingly hopeful. Both, probably. Bertagna's vision of the future is terrifyingly plausible - indeed, she points out, it's already started, and we are standing on the precipice of that future. At the same time, Bertagna doesn't slip into hopelessness, or start lecturing us about how badly we're screwing up the planet - she just presents her vision of the future as she sees it, and I wound up spending a lot of the book asking myself "Is this inevitable? What will we do if this happens? What can we do to keep this from happening?" I think this book should be required reading in every freshman lit class in the world for exactly that reason - because it makes you think, and turns global warming from something that only Al Gore worries about into something much more immediate and personal.

I don't mean to give the impression that this is exclusively a "message" book - far from it. The story itself is very absorbing, and well-told, with sympathetic characters, lots of interesting twists and turns, and plenty of action. Like Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy, on the surface level it reads as an exciting action story, with all of the social commentary tucked down in the cracks - not so much that you have to go hunting for it, but just enough that it's enjoyable on a variety of levels. I wasn't blown out of the water (heh, sorry) by the writing - I tend not to like books written in the present tense without a clear reason for it, and while I can usually tune it out, there were times when it was intrusively noticeable - but for the most part, it was innocuous. Anyways, this isn't a book you should read for the writing, it's a book you should read for the story - and for the message. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: If you liked Uglies, you'll find this one in much the same vein. For everyone else, I'd still recommend giving this one a shot: it's a highly entertaining and compulsively readable story on an interesting - and important - topic. ( )

Recommended by an avid teen reader at my branch.

Survival story set around 2100. Global warming has caused massive flooding because of the melting of the polar ice caps. Main character (Mara) leads a small group of residents of a small, isolated island by boat to see if they can find refuge elsewhere. Recommend to teens who liked Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series or to fans of the City of Ember series. (This one is much longer and a bit more difficult reading level than City of Ember, though.) ( )