z for zachariah

2. Genre: Science Fiction/ Nuclear war/ survival, Grades 7-8 (possibly 9^th).

3. Characters: There are only two characters throughout the entire book. The narrator is a sixteen year old girl who believes she is the sole survivor after a nuclear attack in America. The other is a scientist who stumbles upon her house, because he is traveling all over the country in a radiation suit looking for survivors. At first glance he seems decent, but he becomes a tyrant as the story progresses.

4. Plot: The setting in the story plays a huge role, because it is a post-nuclear war country, and the valley that the girl lived in was not touched by the radiation. The story opens up with the narrator, Ann Burden, explaining why she has lived alone on her farm for the past year. A nuclear war broke out and the U.S. was bombed, but her family was far from one of the target sites. Her dad, brother, and cousin went to the nearest town to see what was going on. When they returned, they told Ann and her mother that everyone was dead. The following day her dad, and the neighbors that owned the general store in the valley, decided to look for other survivors in nearby towns. Her mother and cousin David went with them, but her brother Joseph and Ann were to stay back and take care of the farm. Later that day, Ann realized her brother snuck into the back of one of the trucks, because he didn’t want to be left behind. That was the last time Ann ever saw her family or anyone else.

A year later Ann sees smoke off in the distance and realizes there must be someone else out there. The smoke is getting closer and closer each day which worries Ann. She is not sure if the person is a friend or foe, so she has to make a plan before it is too late. She decides to hide in a nearby cave and spy on the stranger to make sure it is safe. From the cave she watches the stranger approach her house, and notices that he is wearing a big green suit from head to toe with a mask covering his face. He takes some type of instrument that looks like a glass tube and begins to move it around in the air. After he studies the tube closely, he takes off the mask and begins to breathe in air. She gets a good look at the man with her binoculars and notices that he is shaggy looking, and he looks like he is in his late twenties to early thirties. She wants to study him before she goes down to introduce herself. The man takes his glass tube and puts it in the creek by the road and again studies it. Ann realizes that the tube must be an indicator of radiation levels. He goes back to the house and strips off his suit and runs to the creek behind Ann’s house to jump in and bathe. Ann didn’t have time to react or warn the man that there are two different creeks in the valley; one is clean and the other is contaminated. The man took a reading from the clean creek, but he jumped into the contaminated creek.

Ann is concerned that something bad is going to happen to the man and her concerns are correct. The next day the man begins vomiting and staggers back to the tent he has made in her front yard. He is in the tent for the rest of the day, and Ann becomes extremely worried that he is dead. The next day she goes down to the tent and peeks in on the man. He is still alive. He is out of it and has a high fever, so Ann gets him water and looks after him. He begins to get better, and he has Ann measure the creek with the Geiger counter. The radiation count is high. The man tells Ann that the high level in the creek is bad news for him. He also tells her that his name is John Loomis and he is going to get worse.

Ann moves John into the upstairs bedroom, so she can take care of him when the second stage hits. In the course of a few days, his fever comes back and it progressively gets higher until he is unconscious. She watches him and does the best that she can while he is unconscious. His fever tops out at 106* which is dangerously close to death, but his fever eventually breaks and Ann is relieved. John is very weak and can’t even walk so it takes him some time to get around. Ann notices that John’s demeanor has begun to change from feeble to bossy. He is questioning her work ethic on the crops in the field and her ability to run the house. As he gets stronger, his attitude becomes worse towards Ann.

Things come to a boil towards the end of the book when he attacks Ann in her bedroom at night. Ann is able to escape, because John still does not have enough strength in his legs. Ann runs back to the cave to hide and she to decide what to do next. Her plan is to live in the cave and let John Loomis live in the house, so they both can coexist in the valley. She goes down to the front of the house the next day and explains her idea to John, but her plan does not sit well with him. He eventually tries to find Ann, so he can make her return to the house where he can control her. He finds her cave and burns everything in it, so Ann is left with nothing. Ann decides that she needs to take the offensive if she is to survive. Her plan is to lure John away from the house, so she can get the safe suit and leave the valley. Her plan works and she is able to escape the valley and John Loomis.

5. Touchy areas: The scene where John Loomis attacks Ann in her bedroom. It is unclear of his intentions because Ann is able to escape before it escalates.

6. Related titles: Island of the Blue Dolphins (1961) by Scott O’Dell, Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding, Hatchet (1988) by Gary Paulsen.

7. Movies: The Stand (1994), The Day After (1983).

Music: It’s the End of the World as We Know It (1987) by R.E.M., Symphony of Destruction (1992) by Megadeath.

Photos: The Hindu Vision of the Islamic World (1995).

Related websites: Information on radiation sickness (http://www.betterworldlinks.org/book27y.htm), information on the effects of a nuclear war (http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/7906/).

Art: A Mushroom by Markku Immonen.

Poem: Plutonian Ode (1978) by Allen Ginsberg.

Classic Work: Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel DeFoe.

8. Evaluation: The book was an easy read, and it touches on human nature at its most basic instincts of survival. I enjoyed the tension and drama that was built up over the climax of the book. I would rate this 8 out of 10.

9. Reviewed by: Bob Masters, University of Toledo, adibob@buckeye-express.com