Hauptman, Pete. Hole in the Sky. Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Hole in the Sky is a YA novel heavy on adventure and light on teen romance. The premise is a little too busy to really work well. First there is a postapocalyptic theme. In 2028 a Flu that does not go away reduces the world population to 38 million in a decade. A few people, called Survivors, who have the flu don’t die, but they have a bewildering array of side effects—full-body hairlessness, some blindness, some deafness, some violent behaviors, and some intellectual impairment. And oh yes, some psychic abilities. It would be nice if the novel had a modicum of interest in all this strange biology, but it doesn’t. We focus on a family living in a compound on the edge of the Grand Canyon. The elder of the family was once a park ranger. Our protagonist is a young man called Ceej. When an upstream community stops maintaining a dam on the Colorado River and the elders who have headed upstream fail to return, CeeJ, his deaf Survivor sister, his best friend Tim, and a Hopi girl Ceej meets in the canyon are captured by a cult of psychic Survivors. If that is not enough, there is a subplot involving Hopi alternate world mythology. By the way, this book should not be confused with an audiobook titled A Hole in the Sky (note the initial article) recently released by Peter F. Hamilton. I don’t think writers with similar names should be allowed to write books with similar titles. It is confusing for small brains like mine. 3 stars for Hauptman, not Hamilton. ( )

Argh - if you're going to go to all this trouble to write a book, take time to write an actual ending and not one of those "figure it out on your own" dealios.

The book is broken off in four sections - each narrated by a different character. The different narrators were distracting - the book felt like a group of loosely strung together events.

It bothered me that Bella, the Hopi girl, was such a stereotype of the "wise Native American." She was raised in Las Vegas - I don't think she had that much time to learn how to be one with nature.

And the ending (or lack thereof)...I was so annoyed I threw the book across the room. ( )

Interesting plot with most of the world's population succumbing to a mysterious virus leaving Survivors and those who have not been affected. The setting of the Grand Canyon adds much to the story, as does the narration by each of the four kids in the story. The ending leaves many unanswered questions. ( )

"I look toward the sound and see a pile of rags on the floor against the far wall. My eyes adjust further and the pile of rags becomes a man hugging his knees to his chest. He coughs, a dry cough that starts high in his throat, then works its way down until it becomes a bubbling chortle."

In the year 2038, only 38 million people are left on Earth. Most have fallen victim to the worst flu in history. Many others have been killed in the aftermath by the warring tribes of people left behind. Some have survived the flu, only to live without hair, or sight, or sanity. Four teens are on their own, trying to survive, and hoping to find a hole in the sky. Told, in turn, from the points of view of all four teens (including the deaf mute) this is a harrowing story of loyalty and hope.

Request this title from Howard County Library at http://tinyurl.com/2w76wk ( )