The Search for WondLa

Author: Tony DiTerlizzi (author of the SpiderWick Chronicles)

Rating: * (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")

Recommended with Reservations

Audience: Middle School

My main reservation with this book is that, as the first of 3 volumes, it impossible to conjecture where DiTerlizzi may be headed with his science fiction trilogy. Will it continue as a harmless fantasy, purposefully reminiscent of Oz books, or will it devolve into some sort of post-modern treatise on equal rights for plants, animals and robots with no real moral compass or Higher Power?

Eva Nine, the main and human character, has been raised in an underground protective sanctuary by her robot "Muthr" (Multi-Utility Task Help Robot: points for creativity). They have been preparing for the day when they can return to the planet's surface and/or find other sanctuaries occupied by other humans. Eva Nine and Muthr have never seen the sun, the moon, or the surface of their planet, not to mention another human being.

Eva is very much a typical 12-year old adolescent, chaffing at her robot mother's frequent reminders and syrupy comments and longing for some harmless freedom. She possesses an "Omnipod" (the most amazing, futuristic, encyclopedic Ipod ever) and one very primitive item: a scorched and glued together picture, or tile, or perhaps cover of an old hardback book, showing a human child, a robot and an unidentifiable adult along with the pieced-together word "WondLa."

As evidence of other human life, Eva Nine takes great comfort in her "WondLa." When her sanctuary is violently invaded, she takes the Omnipod and her WondLa to the surface. Here she begins to encounter one strange being and place after the next in rapid succession.

At this point I would have to characterize the book as "bizarre" because DiTerlizzi creates characters and languages more fantastically and rapidly than your average adult can process them! Perhaps our kids, with their "popcorn brains" can assimilate them fast enough but I was mildly confused and disturbed for the first third of the book!

Nevertheless, the book's adventures seem harmless enough. Like Dorothy of Oz, Eva Nine finds faithful companions to stand with her against danger, mystery and multiple antagonists.

Some descriptions are tasteless or even gross. There is slight reference to "mind talking" between two characters. There is also mild profanity, if you assume "Sheesa!" is a foreign expletive. Eva Nine, like most adolescents, at one point deceives Muthr to further her journey, but she keeps her goal and purposes pure, rescuing companions on several occasions.

The book also begins to address the point of every quest myth and the universe's biggest mystery: "Why are we here?" Of course, it will take books two and three to determine DeTerlizzi's answer.

At one point Muthr states "Well, I think we have all seen that these machines, myself included, do not have all the answers. I do not believe anyone does...." This is a difficult statement to explain to my 5th grader when we've taught her that absolute truth does, in fact, still exist. How do we work out the balance of respecting other beliefs and ways of life while simultaneously believing that the sacrifice of Christ provides a superior solution to the problem of human nature? Now, there's a parenting challenge for you!

The Search for WondLa also offers an "enhanced internet experience" called "WondLa-Vision" or "Augmented Reality." I found this glitchy and was unable to load it on my Mac. The demo looked cheesy, so I don't know if we're seeing the future of the written word, or just another techie gimmick for selling books.

I don't know about you, but I prefer to hook my kids on books more than movies, computers and internet games. Regardless, the future is the current reality and new media will not be going away. It's up to us to discern the best of what's offered. In WondLa terms:

"The search is just the beginning...."