Where The World Ends

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Geraldine McCaughren

McCaughrean has authored more than 170 books - everything from picture books to young adult novels to plays. Her books have made quite a few notable book lists and received awards including both the Carnegie Medal and the Printz Honor Medal for Where the World Ends.  Mccaughrean won her first Carnegie Medal in 1988 for Pack of Lies.

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World Context

Where the World Ends is a hope-filled young adult novel -- or family read aloud -- for this moment in history.  It is not an easy read -- the desolation evoked by the boys surviving starvation and enduring harsh winter storms on a giant rock only to return to a home decimated by smallpox is an emotional roller coaster. Quill, the boys' leader, reminds his sweetheart after her recovery from smallpox, "After the world ends, only music and love will survive."

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"We all need to be someone, darling, or who are we? Everyone is special for something.
Every boy is some manner of a king."

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Synopsis

McCaughren has woven a fictional retelling of the Hirta boys and men marooned for nine months on Stac an Armin. In this annual, early autumn rite of passage the boys gathered sea birds for enough meat and oil to sustain the island community for the winter. Usually the boat returned in three to four weeks to ferry the group home - but in 1727 visiting ships brought smallpox to the island. And the island's boat never returned to bring the boys home.

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Learning Connections

Psychology - resilience & adversity
Self-sufficiency
Survival skills
Geography
History of epidemics/pandemics

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Ages: 12 - adult; Grades: 6 - 12; 327 pages. A coming of age novel set in the 18th century relevant for today.