Young Letta becomes wordsmith to her community in a future that follows a climate apocalypse. A likable protagonist, Letta (white with green eyes and red hair) is the one positive female character in this narrative of resistance and revelation. She is at the mercy of John Noa, the controlling savior of a number of people who joined his Ark just before a warming planet Earth produced massive, devastating floods in an event remembered as the Melting. Noa is obsessed with the potential of the spoken word to influence human conflict and confusion. When Letta chooses to shelter a wounded boy, Marlo, shot as a Desecrator by Noa's security force, the corruption at the heart of things begins to reveal itself to Letta. Her disillusion deepens when her master goes missing and when a young boy, son of her neighbor, is banished for misusing language. Marlo (sallow-skinned, with blue-gray eyes and black hair) turns out to be part of a largely self-sufficient community living outside the Ark and opposed to Noa's strictures. Forde's pacing and characterization are compelling, especially after initial chapters focused on Noa's truncated List-based language of acceptable words (all English ones) and people's awkward struggle to speak it. Brief expository passages interspersed with Letta's story reveal Noa's thinking and his ugly desire to eliminate the weakness of language. An intriguing speculation about authoritarian futures with a terrific cover. (Science fiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Letta, Ark's apprentice Wordsmith, may be too young to remember the Melting, but John Noa, the town's ruler, is not. How could he forget the floods, the famine, or their insidious origin: dangerous, destructive words? Thanks to Noa, Ark now relies on List, a fiercely regulated collection of permissible phrases. But there's no hope in Ark, and there's certainly no love. What's worse: List is quickly diminishing. Yet, with the help of a ragtag crew of outsiders, Letta might be the one to save it. While debut author Forde's premise is intriguing, its execution vacillates in effectiveness; List's 500-word vocabulary is employed arbitrarily, and the conversations it generates, while illuminating the absurdity of limited language (Criminal. Steal food. Bad boy), often cripple plot development and hamstring secondary characters. List's inception, too, is foggy. Still, Forde's exploration of language as both weapon and savior is a noble one, and environmental undertones bolster its power. Pair with Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008) for more intellect-fueled dystopian adventure.--Shemroske, Briana Copyright 2017 Booklist

Wordsmith's apprentice Letta was born into a world destroyed by "the Melting." She distributes leader John Noa's ever-diminishing lists of permitted words to the citizens of Ark (Noa's bastion of civilization)...until Letta uncovers Noa's plan to silence the citizenry altogether. Forde offer timely explorations of environmental concerns and freedom of speech, with fully realized characters whose stories intertwine tantalizingly. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 7 Up-Before the Melting, words were limitless, yet failed to save the planet. In a world without money, John Noa, the self-appointed leader of Ark, believes words are the root of all evil and common man is a liability. Noa demands the hesitant Wordsmith reduce the List's 700 words to 500. When he mysteriously disappears, apprentice Letta becomes Ark's new Wordsmith. As a loyal follower of Noa, she surprises herself when Marlo, an injured Desecrator, arrives on her doorstep. Hiding him from the gavvers while nursing his wounds is treachery, yet Marlo has sparked an energy in her; he speaks "the old tongue" and of future hope. Can Letta believe in the abstracts of hope and love in a place where those words don't exist? As the rebellion unfolds, Letta must choose to remain loyal or question everything she once believed. Imogen Wilde's solid narration spans the lyrical lilt of inquisitive Letta to the sneering madness of John Noa. -VERDICT Forde's novel is a thought-provoking reminder that even the most common things should never be taken for granted. Fans of Fahrenheit 451 and The Giver will demand a sequel.-Cheryl -Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City School District, OH © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.