Name: Sky Jumpers
ISBN: 9780307981271

Peggy Eddleman

Twelve-year-old Hope lives in a post World War III town called White Rock where everyone must participate in Inventions Day, and though Hope's inventions always fail, her unique skill set comes in handy when bandits who want to steal precious medical supplies invade the town.

Sky Jumpers

Cindy Lee

More of my reviews at Secrets of Lost Words.

*The publisher has provided a copy for reviewing purposes*
Thank you so much to Random House!

Sky Jumper is a Middle Grade novel that I really thoroughly enjoyed! It's one of the better ones that I've read recently. It's really action-packed and it kept the book moving quite well and I think that's what makes this book so great!

Hope lives in a place called White Rock where there is a barrier called the Bomb's Breath. It's deadly but it's the thing that protects the village. Hope actually likes diving through Bomb's Breath and have been doing that for a while. When the town went in danger, she was the only one that could save them all.

This is an adventurous story about courage and risking everything to save the people you love. I think Hope was a brave girl and that she loved everyone in her village a lot. It's helped her become a better person and make her realize that there are more important things than inventing (which was what the village valued the most). Courage is a very important thing and she doesn't feel like she needs to be as good at inventing as everyone else. It taught her that she's different and that it's a good quality that she has.

I loved this story a lot and I think it teaches a very important lesson to kids. At school, everyone would value academics but kids should know that other talents matter as well. This is a book I would definitely recommend to children and plus, it's a very fun read as well!

Rating: B

Jessica Nottingham

When the prospect of a Middle Grade post-apocalyptic book was presented to me, I was over the moon. I'm a huge fan of MG fiction, but it seems like there's not a lot of it out there that stems into areas like this. Maybe it's because post-apocalyptic worlds aren't exactly happy places, but that just made me more excited to see how Peggy Eddleman would handle this in her debut novel.
 
What first struck me as odd was the fact that the science aspect of this book really doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm all for suspending disbelief to enjoy a book. If people can fly, and you explain to me why that's true, I'll happily follow along. In this case, Sky Jumpers tried its best to make sense of a world where very few people remain, and invention is the only thing that matters besides survival. I was tossed into a world where only primitive technology remains, and people put a heavy-handed emphasis on invention. If you don't invent, or you can't invent, you're an outcast. Or, you're our main character. Somehow she seems to be the only one who falls into this category.
 
That being said, I could have let most of that go, except that the questions that I had kept compounding. Characters in MG novels do all manner of amazing things. They set off on epic quests, save villages, and most of the time all by themselves. Nonetheless, my mind simply wouldn't wrap itself around the fact that Hope was in this role. Setting off into a blizzard with your very injured best friend and his five year old sister just doesn't make sense. Add in the fact that "Bomb's Breath", the very thing that kills people who try to enter the valley and is their only protection from outside, can be walked through by simply holding your breath? I'm so very confused.
 
Truthfully, this was a quick enough read. Hope and her friends were well written, and I could actually see the twelve year old persona in their thoughts and actions. That's where my enjoyment of this story hit a wall though. There was too much that just didn't mesh. I think if this were a Fantasy story, something where we're encouraged to let go of anything true (like scientific fact), I would have liked this more.

Sky Jumpers

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