City of Rust - A Review



City of Rust

Written by Gemma Fowler

Illustrated by Karl James Mountford

Published by Chicken House, 2021

 

Whereas the previous two books I reviewed in my series of recommended environmental reads for children are rooted in nature lore, the September offering is definitely one for the science fiction enthusiasts among us. Gemma Fowler’s City of Rust follows on from Moondust and is her first middle-grade story for children aged 9+. This dystopian novel will appeal to fans of Star Wars as well as stories such as Peter Bunzl’s Cogheart series and Pádraig Kenny’s Tin. Readers will be immediately drawn to the eye-catching cover design by Karl James Mountford that features the main character’s bio-robotic pet gecko, hinting at a junkyard world where waste is harnessed.

 

An understanding of the setting is key and a diagram of the various Spheres and the Soup at the start of the book is a helpful addition. The author describes an Earth that is swamped with junk and waste. In a situation very close to our current reality, the richer countries in the story paid less developed ones to take their rubbish. Once there, it would be buried in the ground, so it was out of view. But when the planet ran out of places to do this, an alternate solution was sought, and Earth’s trash was launched into space. This was how the Soup, a ring of rubbish orbiting the Earth just above the Thermosphere, was created. What resulted was the Cascade, which is where junk from the ever-thickening Soup crashes back down to the ground. 

 

The main protagonist is a young girl called Railey, who lives in Boxville with her pet robotic gecko, Atti, and her grandmother, a resourceful expert at creating gizmos and gadgets from the scrap in their city. Railey’s prized possession is a drone that she hopes will one day win the popular drone races in Boxville. But when a bounty hunter crashes Railey and Atti’s biggest race yet, the pair are forced to flee to the feared Junker clans who mine the rubbish orbiting the Earth. Alongside two Junker kids, Care and Laurie, they find themselves in a spaceship heading towards the Soup where they make a chilling discovery. It’s then up to Railey, Atti, Care, Laurie and an ancient computer to save the world from the power-crazed creator of a huge trash bomb. 

 

Stories with a strong social or environmental message can be seen as a challenging thing to pull off in children’s books, but Gemma Fowler provides us with a story that’s full of pacy plot and exciting twists and turns that all great adventure stories need. Readers will also be engaged by the close and often moving relationship between Railey and Atti, a heroine and her cyborg pet gecko, an original combination that provides an insight into how companionship in future worlds may look. I read the book with my Year 4 class and what came out of it were lots of opportunities for imaginative sketching and interpretation; I was particularly taken aback by some intricate and creative designs for the drone workshop that they produced.

 

I would recommend this book for children in Key Stage 2. It would certainly make a good text for any adventure story teaching in English, sketching and creative work in Art, and the broader themes of environmental issues, social justice and friendship will make it relevant to both Geography and PSHCE learning also. 

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