Snow, Carol. The Last Place on Earth. Macmillan/Henry Holt 2016 298p $16.99
ISBN 978-1-62779-039-0 ms Realistic fiction VG
Overzealous families move to wilderness areas in order to
avoid a disastrous plague, and their offspring are affected by their obsessive
behaviors in myriad ways. Author Carol Snow has drawn characterizations that
are fairly powerful in her protagonists, Henry Hawking and Daisy Cruz. While
Henry is the brilliant one, Daisy is no slouch.
She is more of a survivor than any of the others who have left their
homes when faced with a pandemic. While searching
for the missing Henry and his family, Daisy falls into a hole in the ground,
where she spends seven days alone. With
no idea about her future, she survives the loneliness of seclusion. After her isolation, three families open her
door and reveal that they GOOD, or, “Got Out of Dodge”. In preparing for TSHTF
(“The S*** Hits the Fan”), they have built a shelter, supplied it with food and
other survival necessities, and moved in.
Daisy is included only because her best buddy, Henry, has insisted on
it. Otherwise, she would have been left behind to try to survive the Madagascar
Plague with her mother and brother. The cast of characters that Daisy meets up
with during her stay in the wilderness is worth the read. The “K” family also
known as “the Dunkles”, “the Hawkings” and “the Waxweilers”, are equally entertaining. This is a creative story with a lot of ideas
to consider. Should we hide from disaster or work to help others? Snow’s
resolution is rather quick, with a fire leading to a nearly catastrophic
outcome, but young readers will definitely enjoy the storytelling ability of
Daisy, and they will come out of this novel with a message that is worthwhile.
Summary: Overzealous families move to wilderness areas in
order to avoid a disastrous plague, and their offspring are affected by their
obsessive behaviors in myriad ways.
Pandemics-Fiction, Friendship-Fiction, Adventure-Fiction
-–Martha Squaresky
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