Floodland

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the ending came with a large dose of skepticism on my part as it was unbelievable and unsatisfactory. The main character was a very head strong, independent girl named Zoe who overcame many problems with mostly no adult figures to guide her. Alone and desperate among marauding gangs, she manages to dig a derelict boat out of the mud and escape to Eels Island. However, as the book continued, rich characters were given little airtime, conflicts were resolved or discarded too quickly, and the ending was sophomoric at best. Ten-year-old Zoe Black was left behind on Norwich by accident when her parents escaped in the last supply ship to visit the island.

The ending when it came felt a little sudden, and my class felt it was a little to neat for the story, so they then wrote their own endings. This book and planning link well with topic work on climate change, caring for the environment or any links to water. At first Dooby wanted to escape the island with Zoe, abandoning all his people, but Zoe refused after seeing Dooby's violence. Set in an all too believable near future when many parts of England are submerged in water and people drift into gangs, divided due to the scarcity of resources, especially food. Floodland is a challenging novel for older readers who will be captivated by a vision of the future that is not so unbelievable.The language in the book is simple but very descriptive, with interesting discussion points too, making it a good choice of book to read/study as a class.

It felt like it could have been fleshed out much more than it was; honestly it reads more like an outline of a story rather than the finished product. The belief that she will one day find her parents spurs Zoe on to a dramatic escape in a story of courage and determination that is handled with warmth and humanity. The doom that prevails is beautifully crafted as is the glimmer of hope that pulls us through the book with its magnetism.

The themes it throws up link to a number of topics from rivers, oceans, humanity, and global warming. The class enjoyed the developing plot which moves quickly and includes several very anguished and dark moments which kept them engrossed in the story.