Trailer Thursday - Momentum

I've enjoyed Saci Lloyd's The Carbon Diaries 2015 and 2017 so I'm looking forward to Momentum which has just been published by Hodder Children's Books.

Synopsis:
London, the near future. Energy wars are flaring across the globe - oil prices have gone crazy, regular power cuts are a daily occurrence. The cruel Kossak soldiers prowl the streets, keeping the Outsiders - the poor, the disenfranchised - in check. Hunter is a Citizen: one of the privileged of society, but with his passion for free running and his rebel friend Leo he cannot help but be fascinated by the Outsiders. So when he meets Outsider Uma, he is quickly drawn into their world - and into an electrifying and dangerous race to protect everything they hold dear.

Watch the trailer below:

Review: The Carbon Diaries 2017 by Saci Lloyd

The Carbon Diaries 2017 by Saci Lloyd (January 2010, Hodder Children's Books, ISBN: 9780340970164)

First Lines:

January

Mon, Jan 2nd

So exhausted. My family is in deathlike trance after the village New Year's Eve Organic Goose Fayre.

Review: The Carbon Diaries 2017 begins a year after The Carbon Diaries 2015 and carbon rationing is now a part of most people's lives globally rather than just in the UK.

Laura Brown is now at university in London, her parents are living a rural life in Abingdon and her sister is abroad. Laura's band dirty angels continues to be one of the most important things in her life along with her boyfriend Adi. But as the goverment imposes more taxes, anarchy begins. Laura's friends become activists to different degrees and Laura is torn between being safe and getting involved. The political climate impacts on her lovelife as well as Adi goes hard-core and leaves for Africa to help out those affected by drought, leaving an opening for her new friend Sam. Laura's eyes are opened to what's going on when the band go on tour of France and Laura sees for herself the flow of immigrants into Europe and the way they are treated. The war between the Government and the people finally comes to a head in London and Laura makes her choice(s).

Whereas 2015 dealt with life in the UK under carbon rationing and the impact on domestic life for Laura and her family and friends, 2017 portrays a world gone mad with the rise of the right-wing United Front across Europe, water wars in Europe, America and the Middle East, camps for immigrants and police violence against protesters.

Through all the action Laura manages to keep hold of her diary and documents what's going on and what she's feeling and her story is compelling reading. Laura and her friends spring to life on the page and their adventures will have you tensely reading on. If you've enjoyed 2015 then you'll love 2017 with its broader scope and if you haven't read 2015 then I recommend reading them in order just so you know where Laura's coming from. This is an important series of books which makes an serious topic accessible in a believable teen voice.

Cover: Slightly more eye-catching cover than for 2015 and reflects the serious topics covered.

Review: The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd

The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd (September 2008, Hodder Children's Books, ISBN: 0340970154)

First Lines:
January
Thurs, Jan 1st
Exhausted. The whole family looks like death after an all-day meeting.

Notes: The Carbon Diaries 2015 was short-listed for the 2008 Costa Children's Award.

Review: It's 2015 and carbon rationing has been introduced to the UK. Each person has 200 units a month and there are penalties if you go over the limit. The diary is written by the youngster Brown family member, Laura, and there are fairly drastic changes ahead for her relatives: her sister Kim cannot now take a gap year travelling around the world, her mum's car sits on the drive and her dad's job teaching travel and tourism is doomed.

The diary recounts the way the family members cope (or don't) with the changes imposed and also the bigger picture of what has happened with the global weather that makes rationing the only way forward to protect the planet. As well as these serious issues, Laura also has the everyday teenage problems of school, fancying the boy next door and playing in a band.

Life becomes tough indeed but there is a glimmer of hope as the book ends...

The Carbon Diaries 2015 is a very thought provoking read and it would make a great discussion book for a multi-generational group. In the book the teenagers feel their parents have messed the world up and ruined their lives, though the parents probably didn't realise that that's what they were doing, and the generation that experienced rationing after the last war have much experience to share.

I was very interested in the concept behind this book and the author creates a very plausible world; I found myself getting tense as things went from bad to worse. I've read several diary format books and this has been by far the most serious but in addition to its environmental theme, it does cover the usual family issues as well.

I'm really looking forward to the sequel, The Carbon Diaries 2017.

Cover: A serious looking cover for a serious subject, though the book is not without humour. The book is appropriately made of 100% recycled material.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Carbon Diaries 2017

I've just finished The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd and the sequel is out on 7 January (UK) from Hodder Children's Books:

It's over a year since her last diary and Laura Brown is now in her first year of university in London, a city still struggling to pull itself together in the new rationing era. Laura's right in the heart of it; her band, the dirty angels, are gigging all over town until a police crackdown on rioting students forces them out of the city. After a brief exile on her parents' farm, the angels set off in a battered VW bus on a tour of Europe with the fabulous Tiny Chainsaws in the Distance.


The tour soon unravels, however, in an increasingly dramatic sequence of events that include drought in Europe and Africa, a tidal-wave of desperate immigrants, a water war in the Middle East and a city-wide face off with the army in London. Not to mention infidelity, betrayal, friendship, love and massive courage.

How long can Laura distance herself from the struggle? And more importantly, how can she keep her style and hope alive in a world on the edge of madness?