| p>The Last War is a compelling story of a | | | | parents to a nuclear bomb and now lives in an |
| post-apocalyptic world, told in very simple but | | | | abandoned farmhouse outside the city. Angel has |
| effective language. It's for readers who are not | | | | flown down from the north with her father and |
| put off by life-and-death issues, but are still | | | | friends. Her party was captured by a gang that |
| reading on a low level. | | | | killed the men and kept the women - until Angel |
| "Everybody wants to find a way to be the last | | | | escaped. |
| one alive," says Angel, one of the main | | | | She and Brad spend two days together, talking |
| characters, trying to explain why all creatures, | | | | about the past and scrambling to stay alive. In |
| including humans, seem to have reverted to a wild | | | | one especially harrowing scene, they're attacked |
| state. | | | | by a huge pack of rats, who've grown bold and |
| The question is why anyone would want to stay | | | | hungry enough to prey on humans. Finally, Angel |
| alive in the horrific world of this novel. Yet they | | | | starts thinking about where she wants to die . . . |
| do, battling feral dogs, rats, radiation sickness, and | | | | There's no happy ending here, just the emotional |
| each other. | | | | connection to the two doomed kids. |
| Teens Brad and Angel meet near Montreal after a | | | | For intermediates and up. Definitely also for |
| nuclear war. He's scavenging a few cans of dog | | | | mature students. |
| food to eat. She's dirty and angry, but still wearing | | | | (The Last War, by Martyn Godfrey, Aladdin |
| her grandmother's pearls. Brad has lost both his | | | | Books, 1989. Length: 91 pages. |