Review: Sky Jumpers

Sky Jumpers: Book 1 
by Peggy Eddleman

My Review:

An awesome story of how we are all gifted differently, and how that is a blessing.  Hope, an orphan adopted by one of the town council families, has spent the first 12 years of her life attempting to do what the town thinks is important-invent.  In a world in which all technology is gone inventions are what are bringing the world back to a modern lifestyle.  But for Hope, each years Invention Day is just a reminder of what she isn't, an inventor.  Every invention she has ever attempted has failed.  

But when strangers come to town and try to steal the town's most important invention - an antibiotic for a deadly disease, Hope discovers that being a great inventor isn't always what is most important.  

I really enjoyed the story and the determination of Hope throughout the book.  She never gives up, which is a great message for our young people.  I also like the theme of the book, that being like everyone else isn't always the best thing.  Sometimes it is better to be your own person.  

The characters are well developed but there are a few elements of the story that I wish were a little more fleshed out.  Perhaps they will be in future installments.  We read about a sickness that is almost a death sentence without the antibiotics, but that is about all we are told.  We are told about the "Bomb's Breath", a layer of compressed are left behind after WWIII, that is deadly to all who breathe it.  However, I still don't really understand what it is.

Still, the message of this story make it worth reading, and who can resist a 12 year old hero that discovers being who she is is who she was meant to be?