Cleo Porter and the Body Electric
by Jake Burt (Author)
In a future forever changed by a pandemic, a girl survives in total isolation. A woman is dying. Cleo Porter has her medicine. And no way to deliver it. Like everyone else, twelve-year-old Cleo and her parents are sealed in an apartment without windows or doors. They never leave. They never get visitors. Their food is dropped off by drones. So they're safe. Safe from the disease that nearly wiped humans from the earth. Safe from everything.
The trade-off? They're alone. Thus, when they receive a package clearly meant for someone else--a package containing a substance critical for a stranger's survival--Cleo is stuck. As a surgeon-in-training, she knows the clock is ticking. But people don't leave their units. Not ever. Until now.
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Publishers Weekly
Burt (Greetings from Witness Protection!) writes a humorous, humanistic sci-fi adventure set in the near future, after the outbreak of a quickly mutating flu pushed citizens into sealed apartments. From her own home, 12-year-old Cleo Porter has, with the assistance of her AI virtual instructor, been training since age six to become a remote drone surgeon like her mother. But when a mysterious package of essential medicine is improbably delivered to her unit, the family's careful plans are thrown into disarray--rather than prepare for a monumental test, Cleo assumes responsibility for getting the medicine to the rightful patient. In her effort to save a life, she escapes not only her unit but an entire massive complex of apartments and encounters ominous drones, rat-infested compost heaps, and the reality that there is much more outside her walls than the threat of disease. Through the eyes of a fierce and compassionate protagonist, Burt mixes snippets of science into the action, adding a layer of nonfiction to this entertaining, speculative look at selflessness and integrity. Ages 8-12. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Oct.)
Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.School Library Journal
Gr 4-6--Twelve-year-old Cleo lives in an apartment with her brilliant surgeon mother and virtual designer father. Cleo's entire world is the sealed apartment and the online world she visits a few hours a day for school and social gatherings. Her mother performs surgeries daily via drone utilizing the same virtual reality. Cleo's world is turned upside-down when she receives a mysterious package meant for someone else--the system does not allow for mistakes. The package contains very important medicine, without which, the true recipient will die. Despite her looming medical studies test, Cleo dives into the mystery of who the medicine belongs to and how she can get it delivered. Finding nothing online, she decides to do the unthinkable: leave her apartment and deliver the medicine herself. When Cleo is accidentally dumped outside the massive apartment building into the real world, she must use all of her strength to get back into a building designed to keep everyone and everything out, and save someone's life while she's at it. Cleo is exactly the hero today's readers need. She is plucky, tenacious, loyal, and funny. Readers of all backgrounds will relate to the virtual learning and isolation. VERDICT A fun and entertaining adventure, highly recommended for fans of Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember.--Terry Ann Lawler, Burton Barr Lib., Phoenix
Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
An ALA Science Fiction Notable book for 2020-2021
It's a madcap adventure, full of vivid characters and breathless drone chases...[Burt] has given children and their parents something they desperately need: a way of talking about where we are now. —New York Times Book Review "Cleo Porter is the most compassionate, intelligent, irrepressible, admirable hero I've come across in years. Readers will flat-out go nuts for her. I know I did. CLEO PORTER AND THE BODY ELECTRIC would be a great book at any time. At this moment in our history, it is astonishing. Every kid - and adult - should read this!"—Gordon Korman, #1 New York Times-bestselling author Apocalyptic diseases, nefarious drones, hovering skulls, and one nigh-inescapable quarantine bunker — young Cleo Porter has her work cut out for her in this thrilling sci-fi adventure! —Alan Gratz, New York Times-bestselling author of Refugee Jake Burt must have a crystal ball because he's written a dystopian novel set in the future that manages to feel 'of the moment.' In an antiseptic world scarred by a pandemic, our brave and courageous hero Cleo Porter embarks on an epic quest fueled by curiosity and compassion. It is a triumph of humanity and the perfect book for this time. —James Ponti, New York Times-bestselling author of City SpiesJUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
Science fiction
Quests (Expeditions)
Epidemics
Apocalyptic fiction
Social isolation
Future life
Preteen girls
