Deep, Dark and Dangerous

Rodman Philbrick has written some books that I really liked:  Freak the Mighty and Zane and the Hurricane.  I was super excited to see The Big Dark on hoopla.  If your library doesn't have hoopla, please see if they can get it.  There are so many great titles on there!  This book reminded me of Susan Beth Pfeffer's Last Survivors series, which I absolutely loved.
This isn't a rip-off though.  And it is a stand-alone, which I just loved about it.
There has been some big scientific that I don't understand event that has wrecked that magnetic field around the earth and so nothing works.  I mean flashlights, too, cars, all of that.  It's like the world has gone back in time.
And there are nuts around, too.  Those kind of nuts who are end-of-the-world-racist-conspiracy nuts.  And there is a young man who is super brave.  And his mom is a diabetic, and she needs medication.  And this is just a really, really, great book!

Judged the Cover...

But I didn't even look carefully at it!  All of these years I kept thinking on the cover was a dude with a cowboy hat!  And he was looking away from the cover, you know, with his back to the reader! Dude! It isn't!  It's Max holding Kevin on his shoulders!  I wish I would have just taken the time to LOOK at the cover before judging it and thinking, BORING!  Because Freak the Mighty wasn't boring at all.  I also wonder if maybe I could appreciate the story more now at this time in my life because I know a kid similar to Max and one with the same physical concerns as Kevin.
This is a heart-breaking yet beautiful book.  Loved it.  Loved it. Loved it.
And it is weird that I judged this book by its cover when the characters in the book are sometimes judged by their covers.  Max, because he is so big and looks so much like his father who is in prison for murdering his mother and Kevin who has Morquio Syndrome.

Newbery Potential?

Wow.  Zane and the Hurricane was phenomenal!   I loved this book so much.  It made me cry and hope and it made me angry and made me more aware. Incredible. Again, this is one of those books that should be read by adults as well.  Just such an fantastic historical fiction book.  Zane is a neat, neat, neat character.  A 12-year-old from New Hampshire who goes to New Orleans to meet his great grandmother (grandma or great, I can't remember) and while he is there he is separated from her and Hurricane Katrina hits.
There is a lot of misery in this book.  It is a dark story about a horrible disaster that brought out the worst in humanity and the best in humanity.  It asks some great questions.  Why did some people act one way and others the opposite?
The supporting characters in the book are wonderful, too.  Young Malvina is a brave, brave girl.  I wish Tru had been my grandpa growing up. Miss Trissy would have been a wonderful grandma.  I love the description Zane gives of her singing.
Here is the Sunday NY Times book review.  Excellent.