Book Review: Watch the Sky

Watch the Sky by Kirsten Hubbard


This is a new middle-grade novel -- appropriate for 5th grade and up. Not sure how I feel about it yet. I tore through it in two sittings because it is so compelling, yet it left so much unanswered. Young Jory is an outsider: his stepfather Caleb has always instructed him to trust no one, and to ask himself hard questions about authority and about what he learns in school. No one is safe. There are signs -- an increasing number of them -- that indicate that some kind of catastrophic event is about to happen, and the family takes care to prepare, but only Caleb knows for what. Jory endures the awkwardness of school, but for the first time he is making friends and experiencing life outside his family. Just as this is happening, the family's preparations become urgent, leaving Jory torn between his family and his burgeoning independent consciousness.

There is a sense of unease throughout that never is fully resolved -- in fact, the reader is left with more questions than answers at the book's end. In some ways that is a strength -- when authors feel that they need to resolve everything is when credulity stretches to the breaking point. I attribute some of the unease to the character of Caleb the stepfather. An upright man, a strong man, a man determined to protect his family, and a man with a paranoid distrust of authority and belief that some kind of apocalypse is impending. Kids seem to be very sophisticated these days, yet I wonder if the book will seem more sinister to adults and more adventurous (in a kid versus world way) to kids. I can't decide if I love it or even like it, but I am thinking about it a lot, and that is a good thing!