Mara’s daughter Lily’s hope for a new life is dependant on finding land somewhere in the newly watery world. As her ship navigates the strange new terrain she continues to believe in a better future. Fox, living in the ruins of another part of the world, has dreams of his own – and hopes that one day the two of them will be together again.
The LoveReading Comment: Zenith is the incredible story of three teenagers with the will to make their own beginnings in the harshest of worlds. It continues the stunning journey begun in Exodus, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award. For all those adults and children who enjoyed Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy, both titles will be devoured. It is also an environmental wake-up call that should be required reading for all. With terrific storytelling power, Julie Bertagna has written an ambitious and intellectually stimulating novel and pulled it off with great aplomb. The story continues in Aurora - click here.
Sixteen-year-old Mara and her ship of refugees are tracking the North Star, desperate to find a homeland in the melted ice mountains of Greenland. Unwittingly, the refugees bring catastrophe in their wake for Tuck, a gypsea pirate-boy, and also for Ilira - a land whose inhabitants exist in a state of terror at the top of the world.
Julie Bertagna was born in Ayrshire and brought up near Glasgow. After an English degree at Glasgow University she worked as the editor of a small magazine, a teacher and then as a freelance feature writer for various publications. She was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Writer's Bursary - the second highest ever given to a children's writer in Scotland - after the publication of her first novel, The Spark Gap, which was shortlisted for the Angus Award.
