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The Writer, Emily Sun Li, 2012, ISBN 9780988233300 June is your average resident of the planet Pren. It's a beautiful place, with colorful trees and flowers, and birds who tweet Mozart. According to June, it's also really boring. Out of frustration, she fashions something called a pencil out of a piece of coal, and sits down with lots of paper, to write stories of a whole new world. The place is called Earth. June learns that she is a Writer, with the ability to Write an entire world into existence. One Earth, June meets a young artist named Jackson. He has a hard time believing her story; he has an even harder time believing that he has related "abilities" of his own. As a Writer, the intention is that June create a Writer for Earth, someone who, out of frustration and boredom, will Write a whole new world into being. Meantime, Vivien is the Master Writer. Her son, Victor, is a manipulative little you-know-what who thinks that he "deserves" to be the next Master Writer. He also desperately wants to be reWritten (reborn). It is used only in cases of extreme emergency. In her Will, Vivien makes June the next Master Writer, and practically begs her to never, ever reWrite Victor. She is afraid that it will magnify his negative qualities (of which he has many). When told that the answer is No, Victor does not take it well. He spends weeks and weeks plotting the "perfect" way to force June to reWrite him. Does it work? Does Earth get unWritten out of existence (always a possibility)? This one is surprisingly good. The author does a fine job from start to finish. She is only 16 years old (!), but writes like someone older. Young people will love this book; it's well worth reading for adults, too. Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose blog, Dead Trees Review, emphasizes small press and self-published books.
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fantasy, young adult,
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