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Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780689831188
ISBN number: 0689831188
Label: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 179
Printing Date: May 01, 2001
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Age index: Young Adult
Release Date: April 03, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 1335638
Studio: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
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Product Description:
In 2028, a deadly Flu virus ravages the earth. Only one in two thousand survive the virus, and these 'Survivors' are rarely left unaffected. By 2038, only 38 million people remain on Earth. Most of them live in small communities, ever fearful of outsiders who might bring the deadly Flu.
Ceej Kane lives with his uncle and his Survivor sister Harryette in an abandoned hotel on the rim of the Grand Canyon. His quiet, boring life suddenly becomes a desperate adventure when Uncle and Harryette disappear. Searching for them, Ceej and his only friend, Tim, are attacked by the Kinka, a renegade band of half-mad Survivors who spread the Flu to make more of their own. Worse yet, it appears that Harryette has joined them.
Fleeing deep into the Canyon, a narrow land of ghosts and ancient secrets, Ceej and Tim meet Bella, a mysterious Hopi girl. She has been searching the canyon for the Sipapuni, a mystical portal that the Hopi believe leads to another world. Tim thinks Bella is crazy, but Ceej is not so sure. Maybe there is a way out of this Flu-ravaged world. But very first they must find out what happened to Uncle, and they must save Harryette from the Kinka -- if she wants to be saved.
As with his earlier novels, Mr. Was and Stone Cold, acclaimed author Pete Hautman pushes the boundaries of young adult fiction. Combining action, science fiction, and spirituality, Hole in the Sky is the rarest of novels: a thrilling page-turner that will make you think.
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Rated by buyers -
The novel Hole in the Sky, written by Pete Hautman, takes place in 2028 in Arizona. A raging flu virus has wiped out almost all of Earth's population. A boy named Ceej, his sister Harryette, and his uncle live in an abandoned hotel subsequent to the Grand Canyon until one day when a tribe of flu survivors attack a nearby settlement. Someone must go work the dam, otherwise it will break and the canyon will flood. Ceej and his friend Tim are left alone at the hotel. They wait for days but no one returns for them.
Ceej and Tim must now rescue Harryette, but on the way they meet a Hopi girl named Isabella who tells them of a sacred place called the Sipapuni where they can escape their flu-infected world. The Sipapuni is a hole in the ground in one world and a hole in the sky in another. Bella is strange and mysterious but intent on reaching her second world. It is hard to believe in such a thing, but it seems as if Ceej is falling for it even if Tim is not. Bella decides to aid them on their search, putting aside her desire to raech the Sipapuni as soon as possible.
The four teenagers are all forced to choose a path. Will Harryette return to Ceej and Tim? Will Tim believe in the Sipapuni or will he choose to stay in the world he knows and trusts? Will Ceej follow Bella in to the Sipapuni, if it even exists? And ultimatly, will they survived this roving, dangerous, trek?
This book was very intruiging and there wasn't ever a dull moment. It has an interesting plot and the way the flu was spread is very believable. The characters seem so real and the lonely world Pete Hautman has created seems so futuristic. This book gave me the chills because 2028 isn't that far away and it is possible for this kind of thing to happen. Overall this book was excellent and I would suggest it to anyone who was looking for something with a strange but exciting twist.
Rated by buyers 
-
Ah, there's nothing like a good disease-based post-apocalyptic story. Author Pete Hautman has over the years been slowly but surely making a name for himself amongst the juveniles and teens of the world. In this tale written long before the haunting "Mr. Was" and National Book Award winning, "Godless", Hautman takes a classic idea (a plague destroys most of the population of the world) and gives it a couple fancy twists. The book remains relatively unknown, but with Hautman's growing reputation that may not be the case for long.
Split into four parts amongst four young protagonists, this is a story about the end of an old world, and the birth of a new. The bulk of the narration in this tale is given to Ceej. Living with his sister and his uncle just beside the Grand Canyon, Ceej gets occasional visits from his friend Tim and Tim's father. The book is occasionally interrupted by small passages from "A Recent History of the Human Race" (copyright 2038) which helpfully explains how the plague started and how life after its appearance adjusted accordingly. This is lovely conceit and saves the narrators from explaining details that they themselves wouldn't realistically be discussing with the reader. When Ceej's uncle and Tim's father decide to take a trip to a nearby dam so as to prevent a natural disaster, the two go missing. Logically, it's up to our intrepid heroes to try and save them. And the most perilous danger facing these hardy teens is a band of survivors of the flu (which renders anyone who's lived through it hairless and slightly altered) called the Kinka who've become a dangerous and violent cult, threatening our heroes' actions at every turn.
The plot that I have just described is a really good one. There's a lot of well thought out details involved and I was delighted to find myself really enjoying it just about until we meet the Hopi girl. Suddenly the book swerves from science fiction into fantasy. Ceej and Tim run across Bella, a girl in the woods who's been surviving on her own with little effort. Bella is searching for the Sipapuni a (and I'm quoting the book's jacket on this one), "mystical portal that the Hopi believe leads to another world". That's all fine n' dandy, but I found the character of Bella somewhat stereotypical and needless. She could have been an excellent foil for the other characters. Instead, she's rendered rather two-dimensional. Bella has lived much of her life as any normal kid. Yet when we meet her in the story she seems, amongst other things, incapable of conjunctions. While most of the characters speak without affectation, Bella has a halting overly formal speech that just rubbed me the wrong way. On top of that, she's a guide to the Sipapuni, a master of healing, has a way with animals, and speaks regularly with her grandfather (deceased). You just want to ask Hautman why he decided to write such a stiff caricature of a Native American. Why didn't he let Bella be a realistic person? Why is she placed in that long tradition of stereotypical "wise Indian" parts that have been around as long as "The Last of the Mohicans"? I found Hautman's choice to display Bella in this way needless. But hey. That's just me.
Apart from Bella, the writing falters when our characters start concentrating on the mystical Sipapuni; a land without disease. Harryette, Ceej's sister, is a deaf mute and a survivor of the disease. Hautman makes numerous references to the fact that Harryette can't hear things going on. Fast forward to the end of the story where Harryette twice miraculously recovers her hearing. Is this a miracle of desert life? No, it's the book momentarily forgetting that Harryette is deaf. Hence Harryette, "Faintly, in the distance", heard Bella cough. Later when Harryette and Tim are climbing down a steep crevice, "A few minutes later I heard his voice". Sloppy writing, heck. Sloppy editing. On top of that we've the suddenly fantastical element of the Sipapuni, standing at odds with the wonderfully science-fictionist feel of the rest of the book.
The finale of this story is open-ended, which is fine. It does certainly stare you in the face and seem to scream "SEQUEL!!!" in your ear, but so far fans of the book have been disappointed in that respect. As it is, it stands well enough on its own. On the whole, it's a fun book. I just wish it could have been rewritten a little to avoid mistakes, stereotypes, and shifts in genre. But if you're looking for a great tale of future woe, you could not do much better than this story.
This is the review (with some minor changes) as I wrote it way back in March of 2004. In 2005 author Paul Hautman contacted me and let me know that I'd been a bit on the sloppy side and had screwed up my facts about the book. I print his points on the matter here. If you would like a balanced view of "A Hole In the Sky", then please read Mr. Hautman's ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
"Hole in the sky", written by Pete Hautman is one of the greatest books I've ever read. The book tells about fours teens that try to survive in the wake of a deadly flu virus that has destroyed most of the earth population by 2028. A group of people immune to the disease see themselves as "the chosen" and threatens to use the virus to wipe out all other survivors. Ceej and his friend Tim set out to rescue Ceej's sister from the cult, though they aren't sure if she's a prisoner or a willing participant. They meet a girl who is convicend that there is is a magical path out their diseased world and into another one. Each of the four teens narrates of a portion of the story. The Grand Canyon works both as great place appropiate for a disease, and as a hopeful site for a mistical transformation into a new uncontaminate planet. In conclusion I recommend this book especially if you like futuritis fiction and survival stories.
Rated by buyers -
Hole in the Sky is the book I chose to read about. The author Pete Haulman wrote this book about a deadly flu in the year 2028. You should know that the Kinkas are a group of survivors of this deadly flu. They want to wipe out all of the people who have not been diagnosed with the flu. Ceej and Tim, who are friends, had their guardians taken away from them by the Kinkas. Ceej's sister Harryette, was a survivor of the deadly flu and she joined the Kinkas feeling very threatened by them. Now Ceej and Tim go out and try to get Harryette from the Kinkas. Along the way they meet a Hopi girl named Isabella. Isabella told them about a third world where there is no flu or Kinkas. So Ceej, Tim and Isabella tried to rescue Harryette. They ran into the master Kinka who was always around Harryette and made it hard to free her. Finally, Tim finds a way to free her and gets away. In the end, I was very disappointed because the author didn't tell whether any of them made it to the third world or not and Ceej and Isabella wandered off without Tim and Harryette and you don't know what happens to either of them. I would recommend this book because it keeps the suspense going and you want to keep on reading. For people who like good endings this would not be a good book for you but it had a good topic.
Rated by buyers -
Sangani,Pranay
Feb-12
Period-1
Hole in the Sky
Pete Haulman
P.Sangani
P.1
This book by Pete Haulman talks about a flu bug that is really deadly.
hardly only some people survive after the flu has hit thrm and others hope to stay
away from it.They try to seclude themselves from the outer world.In fact,the isolate
themselves to such a major extinct that they prohibit outsiders from entering their
towns.Their is a mysterious group of people known as the Kinkas.These people have
survived the flu.People who have survived the flu are bald and some seem to loose
some of their human capabilities.Some can't talk some can't walk.In the grand canyon
in Arizona,there are some people living on the rim of what is the Grand Canyon.
Whithin them is a young boy named Ceej.He has a sister named Harryette.Ceej
has not been effected by the flu.Although his sister is a survivor.Before the flu she
was a playfu seventh grader,but the flu drained her ability to speak.She could
not hear either.Then there is their Uncle.He takes care fo them.Also,a person
named Hap trades stuff with Uncle.
The book was really good.The book gives you a sense of adventure.Unlikemost authors,Pete Haulman,has done something different.He has based the book on the
future,but he has not used futuristic technologies.The only reason to advance time was to make the event of the flu possible.The opening of the book is very good.There is a quote
which gives you a great sence of adventure,"That was when an earthquake hit.Except it wasn't
an earthquake at all,it was the rock moving,and I was standing on it.I saw tim's eyes go wide,and the sky seemed to tilt,and the air was filled with thunder/I must have jumped,because
the subsequent thing I knew I was lyingon my belly on the rim and the rock was sliding down the
face of the cliff."Tim and Ceej are trying to push the rock down the surface of the grand canyon.
Then out of frustration Ceej stands on it.Then it falls and he jumps on the hard grand canyon.
This book is good,but there are four parts of the book,and in each of the parts there is a character.After each part the narration of the character changes and we have a book with
four very first prespective reviews.I didn't like that.Another thing I don't like is the book meves at a very slow pace.You can convey the same information in a page,but they have taken 4 pages to display the data.So,it makes reading the book boring.Then the ending,it is abrupt.They wanted to leave the book on interpretation but this doesn't give an ending!"Maybe Ceej and Bella are dead on the river bottom,their mouths filled with silt."This is one of the last sentences and because of the narration changed the main characters are lost!
My least favorite part was that the main characters are lost.The holy place believed by
Bella is found,But Bella is not.I really got frustratedI read the whole book but in the end you don't know what happpened about the flu or anything else.
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