When Kepler Masterman returns home to Moon from an exciting trip to Earth, life seems unadventurous until he takes a forbidden trip out on to Moon's surface. The dangerous and sinister repercussions which follow threaten Kepler's life as he, and his girlfriend, Ann, walk straight into a trap.
Monica Hughes was a very popular writer for young people, and has won numerous prizes. Her books have been published in the United States, Poland, Spain, Japan, France, Scandinavia, England, and Germany. She has twice received the Canada Council Prize for Children's Literature, and was runner-up for the Guardian Award.
She is the author of Keeper of the Isis Light, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, which also received a Certificate of Honor from the International Board on Books for Young People; Hunter in the Dark, also an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Sandwriter, among many other titles.
While it's hard to compare this to the first book in the series, as I'm now an adult reading an MG novel, I still think it's a terrific read for an imaginative mind. Hughes painted a vivid picture without making it overly complicated with unnecessary descriptions. It's exciting without being violent or gory. And there are even some very complex scientific theories that are explained in a way that kids will be able to follow.
A few years and my own children might be ready for it. If only it weren't so hard to find!
This my first book in English im so proud of me.. My first try to finish a small book.. So this is make so happy.. And i hope to read more and more to improve my language..
I thought that this book was relatively trite, and perhaps outdated, until my daughter started asking questions about what would happen if one lived in a regulated society, or if one lived on the moon. I forget the actual discussion, but I remember my surprise that the questions Earthdark deals with are exactly those she was pondering. It certainly is a sufficiently engaging novel, with nothing problematic or logically flawed. It did not move me excessively, but let's see how my 12-year-old daughter responds to it...
Another book from my elementary school days...and at the time, I was incredibly shocked that my teacher was actually giving us SF to read...when I seemed to be the only one in the class who actually ENJOYED science fiction.
As for the novel itself...the style wasn't one I found particularly enjoyable at the time, but I burned through it, engaged by the characters. Ironically, I find echoes of Monica Hughes-style storytelling in many episodes of Star Trek in its later incarnations.