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ON A CLEAR DAY by Walter Dean Myers Kirkus Star

ON A CLEAR DAY

by Walter Dean Myers

Pub Date: Sept. 23rd, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-38753-8
Publisher: Crown

Myers issues a rebellious call to action that chronicles how seven diverse teenagers respond to injustice in a globalized not-so-distant future.

In 2035, giant multinationals control the world’s major resources, engineering positive economic growth by exploiting worldwide social inequity. Change-embracing Dominican computer whiz and Bronx native Dahlia Grillo, the narrator, is one of seven teens who resist. The ragtag team of young activists has been drawn together from all over in hopes of making a difference, but they struggle to find direction and meaning. Soon they find themselves facing off with the young, charismatic Sayeed, who might be a terrorist, a revolutionary, both or neither. With such a lack of clarity, so many variables at play and the clock ticking, they must learn to trust in one another and work together. Myers’ first posthumous release brings a narrative that fully embraces the richness of global cultures to the too-pale, too-monocultural dystopian market; its emphasis on the strength of collective action over individual heroics further distinguishes it from the bland masses. Dahlia’s given cultural specificity with splashes of Spanish and an ode to Dominican home cooking. Readers are left to question what actions are possible, what actions are needed and what actions are right in a world where inaction is an impossibility.

A clarion call from a beloved, much-missed master.

(Science fiction. 12-16)