Ship Breaker

The 2011 Printz-award winning Ship Breaker is a dystopian thrill ride. Severe climate change has rendered coastal areas into wastelands; corporations have free reign to do whatever they'd like, and the world has been severely divided into the haves and the have-nots. Nailer is a have-not, a ship breaker who lives with his drug addicted and abusive father and who scavenges ships for copper wiring and spare parts and dreams of the day a Lucky Strike will change his life. Nailer's luck turns when a huge storm blows in a clipper ship with the wealthy Nita onboard. Now, Nailer must decide whether to leave her to her own fate, to ransom her, or to defy all odds and help her. Ship Breaker is a tightly woven, edge of your seat adventure. Nailer's world is incredibly grim, and also incredibly relatable as it deals with the results of climate change and social stratification, but the reader is never bogged down with the details of it. Though this book also deals with some hard-hitting and timely social and political issues, these, too, never come across as teaching points or messages. Instead, they are woven into the complex plot as Nailer and Nita put aside their differences and become unlikely friends.