Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Genre: Sci-Fi
Age Range: 14+
TV Guide Snippet: Any human that is left is just waiting
for the other shoe to drop, but Cassie finds the strength to keep fighting for
the one thing the Others didn’t destroy, family.
Plot Summary: Sixteen year old Cassie travels light these
days: food, water Luger, M-16, ammo, and Bear. She is one of a few humans left
after the aliens, the Others, attacked. First knocking out all electronics,
second causing tsunamis, and third causing a pestilent spread of disease. Losing
her mother in that third wave and her father in the fourth, the Silencers, her
little brother may still be alive. With the impending and unknown fifth wave,
Cassie tries to will her way through the kill or be killed world.
The aliens are never described physically, but they are a
ruthless race of beings willing to do anything to clear the planet of the
humans. Children and teens that once lived in a world where their parents took
care of them, electronics kept them in a warm glow, and no one was allowed to
hit anyone in school is yanked away from them. Readers navigate from
alternating perspectives their now brutal and violent world.
Anything Critical: I think that this book was written
excellently as a teen aged narrative. There are a lot of different things that
teens filter through their emotions. Being a cool and calm reader, I can see
the different truths that are being presented. The characters go through a
range of emotions like self-denial, self-hatred, guilt, as they make decisions
and interact. There is a lot of self-conflict in the book that shows the internal
struggles that these teens, and teens in general, experience. It is a hard age
to get right, and I think Rick Yancey gets them.
Curriculum Ties: History – Colonization, Psychology, Sociology
Challenge Issues: Language, Violence
Program Ideas: Basic survival tips – Offer a teen program
that gives basic survival skills. Red Cross Class – Offer a Red Cross 1st
Aid class in conjunction with a short book talk.
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