Green Children’s Literature: Rumer & Qix

Oh, I hate to write a negative review, but sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Rumer & Qix: The Race to Terra Incognita by Kathleen S. Wilson is a book written for young adults, a demographic that is often ignored in the wave of green children’s literature that has been forthcoming. Most green children’s books target a younger audience, so I was excited to learn about Rumer & Qix, especially since my daughter is an avid reader and loved the Gaia Girls series and anxiously awaits the next book.  Both my daughter and I were seriously disappointed in Rumer & Qix.

What’s wrong with Rumer & Qix?  It’s confusing.  The futuristic names are hard to follow and interfere with the story’s flow.  Just consider the book description:

Rumer, a petite apprentice reporter for the 31st century Global Quotidien with a flair for fashion, loves zipping across Nanjing with her loyal sidekick, Qix, in search of stories. But now, she’s furious with her boss for asking her to cover the exploits of Alfa, the planet’s wealthiest mega-conglomerate. Her parents died in an Alfa accident and she can’t understand how he can be so insensitive. She escapes into the indie networks and soon finds herself puzzling over an image of a bizarre nature sighting. Ever since the flora and fauna were replaced with Alfa’s Syncov™ replicas eons earlier, sightings like this have been routinely dismissed. When ethereal voices relay a message confirming Rumer’s hunch that things are terribly amiss, she slips away on a globe-trotting quest for answers. An epic battle is brewing between Dr. BigCo, the powerful Alfa CEO, and his nemesis, MoNa, the vulnerable matriarch of the cosmos. Will Rumer be able to turn things around before it’s too late?

• » See also: Grow Your Own Tree Hugger: 101 Activities to Teach Your Child How to Live Green
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Confused…try reading the first chapter.  Honestly, that’s as far as I made it. I just couldn’t get into the book, and neither could my daughter. Perhaps if I could have muddled through 50 or 60 pages, I would have become engaged, but I couldn’t follow the story. Maybe it is more a fault of my attention span rather than the book itself.  What do you expect for the year 3013?

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