6
SEPTEMBER 1�8, 2021
FROM THE SHELF
CHECKING OUT THE
WORLD OF BOOKS
Disaster looms
in ‘The World
Ends in April’
By Lisa Britton
Go! Magazine
I
really enjoyed “The Miscalcula-
tions of Lightning Girl” by Stacy
McAnulty, so when I saw she had
a new book — “The World Ends
in April” — I immediately added it
to my list.
Then I forgot about it because
I had a bunch of other books to
read.
Several weeks ago, while my
son, Max, was browsing the new
children’s books at the Baker
County Library, I spied “The
World Ends in April” and prompt-
ly checked it out.
Middle grade fi ction, targeted
for youth in grades 4-8, is one
of my favorite types of reading.
The stories are often complex,
yet funny and usually a bit more
lighthearted than adult fi ction.
“The World Ends in April”
is the story of Elle, who has
grown up with survival exercises
courtesy of her grandpa Joe,
who is described as a prepper
and stockpiles water, MREs and
everything else one would need
to survive a catastrophe.
She doesn’t much like these
prepper exercises.
Then she happens upon
a website where a scientist
describes a massive asteroid
hurtling toward Earth. By his cal-
culations, the impact will happen
sometime in the next April.
At fi rst she discounts the
claim. But school is not her most
favorite place to be and her best
friend, Mack, who is blind, may
be leaving for a diff erent school.
As she navigates the not-so-
fun aspects of middle school,
Elle begins to think that maybe
starting over would be okay —
maybe the asteroid will hit some-
where to aff ect Earth to the point
that only the strong survive (The
Lisa Britton/Go! Magazine
End of the World As We Know It,
or TEOTWAWKI).
Mack talks her into starting
a club to share her survival-
ist knowledge with other kids.
Although its secret name is the
End of the World Club, they call
it Nature Club to fl y under the
radar.
Her classmates see the club
as something fun to do after
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school while Elle can only focus
on the impending collision and
the responsibility of preparing
her friends for survival.
But here’s the thing: There is
only the one man who is claim-
ing the asteroid will hit Earth.
Her dad points out that NASA
and other agencies are refut-
ing his scenario, yet Elle refuses
to listen.
She really wants to start over.
I’ll leave the ending as a sur-
prise. (I had barely fi nished the
book before Max snatched it up.
He recommends it too.)
Past the end, though, McAnul-
ty writes about sources, and
encourages her readers to be
vigilant in their research to make
sure a website is legitimate —
which is always good advice.
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