April's SJBC theme is "Extinction Rebellion" and our meeting will focus on "cli-fi," or climate change fiction, youth climate activism, and what we can do. On Tuesday, April 21st, interested teens should join us at 3:30 p.m. at our Central branch. Here is a list of suggested titles to get you thinking...
Fiction: War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky. In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together. And they're willing to fight to get there.
Fiction: Wilder Girls by Rory Power
It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit. It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence. But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence.
Fiction: Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
In the distant future, giant "traction cities" move about on what's left of Earth's barren landscape, consuming smaller towns and hunting for resources. When apprentice Tom Natsworthy witnesses a crime he doesn't understand and is pushed out of London, he must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by the mysterious Hester Shaw.
Fiction: Dry by Neal & Jarrod Shusterman
A lengthy California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, turning Alyssa's quiet suburban street into a warzone, and she is forced to make impossible choices if she and her brother are to survive.
Fiction: The Beast of Cretacea by Todd Strasser
When seventeen-year-old Ishmael wakes up from stasis aboard the Pequod, he is amazed by how different this faraway planet is from the dirty, dying, Shroud-covered Earth he left behind. Ishmael is here to work, risking his life to hunt down great ocean-dwelling beasts to harvest and send back to the resource-depleted Earth - and getting paid handsomely in exchange. It's the only way to get his foster parents safely off the crumbling Earth before it’s too late.
Fiction: Empty by Suzanne Weyn
When, just ten years in the future, oil supplies run out and global warming leads to devastating storms, senior high school classmates Tom, Niki, Gwen, Hector, and Brock realize that the world as they know it is ending.
Fiction: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
In a desolate, wrecked world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth - finally getting a shot at a future beyond his current desperation - or rescue the girl.
Fiction: The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
Terran colonists take over a planet locals call Athshe, meaning "forest," rather than "dirt," like their home planet Terra. They begin to destroy this forest planet without resistance, until one fatal act sets rebellion in motion and changes the people of both worlds forever.
Fiction: The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd
It's 2015 and the UK is the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rations, in a drastic bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions. As her family spirals rapidly out of control, Laura Brown chronicles the first year of rationing with scathing abandon.
Short Stories: Loosed Upon the World
This is the Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction, edited by John Joseph Adams. Dozens of short stories by renowned writers, including Margaret Atwood and Kim Stanley Robinson, offer visions of climate change from present day to the far future.
Speeches: No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
A collection of Greta Thunberg's speeches.
Non-Fiction: It's Getting Hot in Here by Bridget Heos
This hard-hitting look at climate change tackles the past, present, and future of global warming, examining the effects it's having across the world, the politics behind denial, and the ways in which we can all work to lessen the harsh effects of our warming world.
Non-Fiction: Eyes Wide Open by Paul Fleischman
We're living in an "ah-ha" moment. Take 250 years of human ingenuity. Add abundant fossil fuels. The result: a population and lifestyle never before seen. The downsides weren't visible for centuries, but now they are. Suddenly everything needs rethinking — suburbs, cars, fast food, cheap prices. It's a changed world. And this book explains it.
Non-Fiction: This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
Subtitled Capitalism vs. the Climate. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein offers an explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core "free market" ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems.
