Journey Between Worlds
Sylvia Louise Engdahl
Format: Hardcover
Price: $17.99
ISBN: 0399245324

Journey Between Worlds soulfully explores cultural prejudices against the backdroup of a futuristic colonization of Mars and through the empathic turmoil of a recent HS graduate. Mirand forgos her earthbound relations in exchange for a temporary Mars life. She exhibits a stubborn dissidence towards Mars that fuels her misconceived views. However, new relationships influence her to reevaluate and understand herself, as well as, Mars from the natives’ perspective. Reflective and thought-provoking, this valiant character finds solace in self discovery. Other Sylvia titles have been recently reprinted.

Genre: Philosophy/Human_Relations/Gut_Love
Read-alikes: For serious content, suggest other Engdahl titles. Due to deep character development recommend this to older teens and young college students who have read and loved authors like Gail Carson Levine and Tamora Pierce.
Web Goodies: HEY, Sylvia has a MYSPACE ACCOUNT! Her website can be found here. Also check out her SpaceSubsite to further enhance your space age mythological experience.

Commentary: JBW was my introduction to Engdahl’s writing, which means I haven’t read the more popular title Enchantress from the Stars (Newberry Honor book). From the getgo it’s immediately apparent that this Journey will indeed be otherworldly. I’m thinking, that because JBW was written in the 70’s, the dominating writing style of the time, for the YA field, was more intense and philosophical than my modern palate has been accoustomed to. I mean to say that the previous generations had another method of portraying their missions. For example, Melinda is highly mature and intuitive:

Nobody knows this better than parents, and parents don’t want to think of their kids as adults. This is less because they distrust you than because they distrust themselves; its a matter not of your age, but of theirs. They hate to believe that they are old enough to have grown children. So if you love your folks, why make it tough for them? - pg 3

I don’t read this as being stated in the vernacular, but as being directed towards an older teen or adult audience. The story, throughout, contains other loaded ideas and is dense in character development. At times, these power ideas reduce the backdrop of Mars to slightly significant, causing the novel to lose most of its science fiction cred. Which is only a problem if you have a reader wanting a strong science fiction read. But Melinda’s insightfulness will certainly win the hearts of those wanting a coming-of-age story with substance.

Participating: Got any ideas for read-alikes that contain valiant characters or other similar reads? Please leave a comment.