about the book
Years after World War III ended and the “green bombs” dropped, twelve-year-old Hope lives in the town of White Rock, a settlement of inventors trying to find ways to overcome the effects of the green bombs. Hope is an inventor in her own right, but sometimes she, a typical teen, just has to get away. She and her friends like danger. And what could be more dangerous than cliff diving into Bomb’s Breath?
Bomb’s Breath is a deadly band of super-compressed air that covers the craters and canyons left by the bombs. But it is not the only danger in the world.
When a group of bandits learn that White Rock has a cache of priceless antibiotics, they put the town under siege and give Hope and her town an ultimatum: give up their medicine now—which will certainly mean they all will soon die of the disease that has scoured the world since the war—or they can fight, and probably die right away.
A neighboring town could help, and only Hope and friends Brock and Aaren are nimble enough to get away, to dive through Bomb’s Breath and traverse a snow-covered mountain to get there. Recklessness and daring, not invention, will save the day—now, or not at all.
about the author
Peggy Eddleman grew up the third child of six, with three brothers and two sisters. She was not really the middle child of a typical family. She was the oldest girl. That meant something else entirely. It meant she had sisters looking up to her!
The town they grew up in had plenty of neighbor kids to play with, but it was small enough also to allow for untamed lands around their home. Wild spaces, spaces waiting to be explored. She and her siblings named one of the places closest to them—it actually touched their yard—Vilcabamba, the name of a lost Incan city. To this day it still seems magical to Peggy!
Some of Peggy’s best memories were made between third and sixth grade, exploring places with her siblings, building forts, acting out stories, and jumping off of tall things their mother certainly would not have approved of had she known. When Peggy grew up and had kids of her own, and when those kids got to be between third and sixth grade, Peggy started reading them middle grade books, like the kinds she loved at that age. That was when Peggy realized that all along, she had wanted to be an author.
Today Peggy still lives near her original hometown, close enough to her parents that her own children have felt the magic of Vilcabamba.
Source :
Author website
Also by Peggy Eddleman:
The Forbidden Flats (Sky Jumpers, Book 2). Random House Books for Young Readers. 2014.
read more!
The Forbidden Flats (Sky Jumpers, Book 2) by Peggy Eddleman
With the bandit threat behind them, the citizens of White Rock face an even bigger threat: the Bomb’s Breath itself. An earthquake causes the release of a gas that interacts with the Breath, lowering it closer to the ground and potentially poisoning everyone inside. Once again, Hope and her friends must travel beyond White Rock for help.
The Orphan of Awkward Falls by Keith Graves
Josephine and her family move to Awkward Falls, and what should be next door to their new house than a dilapidated mansion! Curious and eager to explore, Josephine is caught snooping by the mansion’s automaton butler, a patchwork cat, and Thaddeus Hibble, the boy who lives there. It looks to be a pretty interesting summer!
Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass
Joss is the seventh and least skilled son of the Supreme Overlord of the Universe, and his menial job is delivering pies. These special pies contain “forces of nature” that hold the universe together. When the human Annika accidentally spots a pie baker through her telescope, Earth and its solar system are ripped out of existence. Now Annika and Joss must recreate Earth’s entire solar system… from scratch!