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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic DeVita, J. 2007 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In a world filled with sanctions and restrictions, Marena struggles to remember the past: a time before the Zero Tolerance Party murdered her mother and put her father under house arrest. A time before they installed listening devices in every home and forbade citizens to read or write. A time when she was free. In the spirit of her revolutionary mother, Marena forms her own resistance group-the White Rose.
This is a chilling dystopian novel that leads readers to question the very essence of their identities. Who do you think you are?
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-The Silenced begins with Marena running late for her bus that takes her from her readaptation community to her Youth Training Facility. Classes are lead by instructors of public enlightenment and consist of recitation of Zero Tolerance Party propaganda. Stern, silent state officers patrol the halls. As the book progresses, Marena begins to remember things that she was somehow made to forget. It becomes clear to her that her father was there when the state officers dragged her mother from their home years before. As regulations tighten, she isn't sure who she can trust besides her boyfriend, Dex, and newcomer Eric. She realizes that, like her mother, she cannot remain silent in the face of state oppression. The three friends choose graffiti as their primary form of rebellion. DeVita's novel has many of the same character types and situations as other dystopic works-the enemy who has a change of heart, the unsympathetic character who nevertheless proves to be brave, and the friend who is a traitor. While readers may not find any conceptual surprises, this is a gripping read and young adults will certainly empathize with the characters' conflicts between self-expression and a desire to fit in. They will find the Zero Tolerance credo that the state's first priority must be the safety of its citizens to have a chilling resonance with statements in the news today.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"We believe that the intermingling and tolerance of different religions, foreign cultures, or personal beliefs of the individual dilute the national character and moral foundation of our state." That?s society?s mantra in DeVita?s (Blue) bleak dystopia, inspired by the true story of Sophie Scholl, who, as a member of the White Rose group, engaged in resistance against the Nazi Party. The Millennium War is over, and the Zero Tolerance Party is in charge; officials and school teachers offer soothing promises of a new golden age, none of which ring true amid an ever-tightening net of cultural regulations and phobias. Marena?s parents were demonstrators against the war, her mother killed in an attack by government troops; throughout the story, Marena rebuilds her memories of her mother. Party officials take over Marena?s school, to get it "back in line with the readaptive guidelines developed by the state." Off to the north, resistance to the Party is brewing; frustrated by her father?s apparent acquiescence, Marena decides to begin her own underground movement. To call this book heavy-handed is understatement, and DeVita spends too much time and detail on the machinations of his world. Ages 12-up. (July) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Review
In a world with more than a passing resemblance to Orwell's 1984, a war has ended in the creation of a police state bent on crushing dissent, run by the Protectorate of the Zero Tolerance Party. Living with her father and brother in a "social readaptation community," following her mother's execution for treason, Marena attends a school where youth are brainwashed to serve the state. After a teacher is arrested, Marena and two friends meet in secret to plan resistance. Meanwhile, a highly placed school official begins to question the Protectorate and its objectives as the resistance grows and the community is placed under heightened surveillance and control. As individual freedoms are eliminated, Marena looks to her mother's choices for guidance in making her own, and in deciding how to respond to an evil she is powerless to overthrow. This otherwise tautly plotted novel is weakened by a confused presentation of the Protectorate and its aims. Does it seek to create a master race through Third Reich eugenics or to stamp out difference by destroying human individuality altogether? Ripe for discussion. (Fiction. 12+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
"In the aftermath of the Millenium War, the new Zero Tolerance government focuses on the safety inherent in homogeneity of political thinking, ethnic origin, and appearance. A wall has been constructed around the southern part of the country and suspected families relocated into a re-dap community in which the young people can be educated into right-thinking. But within her Youth Training Facility, Marina has found some kindred souls: an art teacher who encourages her, a boyfriend with whom she sneaks out at night, and a rebellious newcomer. As she gradually retrieves her memories of her mother's death, Marina determines to honor her spirit, starting her own resistance movement, the White Rose. This leads to a horrifying discovery: the tool the party uses to silence wrong-thinkers permanently. Gripping suspense combined with satisfyingly capable teen characters make this a good YA read, but the person who truly grows and changes is an adult, Minister of Education Greengritch. A convincing dystopia with echoes of Nazi Germany, ending with an appreciation of Sophie Scholl and the real White Rose."--"Isaacs, Kathleen" Copyright 2007 Booklist