The year is 1908. The location: Armedius Academy, one of the eight schools in The United Isles designed to train rithmatists. The enemy: wild chalklings. The good guys: rithmatists, professors, and police men...at least they should be "the good guys".
The United Isles were formed when explorers sailed from Europe in search of new lands. The sixty islands eventually became a whole country with some of the islands even having names like Mexica, West Carolina, and Denver. Sounds a lot like the United States, right? But the parallels end there. While this world may be similar to ours in some way, author Brandon Sanderson takes the reader into a thrilling, unique, world full of incredible creatures unlike anything in our world today.
Everything in the United Isles revolves around one important thing: chalk. Chalk? How could such an advanced, thriving country be consumed with something so simple as chalk? But this chalk isn't simple. This chalk, while still two dimensional, has the power to move, attack, defend, even to the extent of attacking real people and stopping real canon balls. Most of the chalk drawings perform the tasks their makers command, doing no harm, but wild chalk is uncontrollable. Rithmatists, specially chosen by the Master, spend their lives defending the rest of mankind against these aggressive chalklings, keeping them at bay on the island Nebrask.
Most people accept this as normal, a part of life. There will always be Rithmatists defending the isles, all is well, and all will remain well. But perhaps all is not as it seems. For sixteen year old Joel Saxon all is definitely not well. When strange disappearances of Rithmatists hit the news, Joel is thrown into a case that becomes more baffling the more he investigates. What exactly are the wild chalklings? How will these discoveries change the world he knows?
I haven't been super impressed with summer reading programs. Getting coupons can be really nice, but the free book selection is usually not the best. I picked up The Rithmatist, however, at a library program a few years ago and it has turned out to be one of my favorites. It's one of those books that I hardly even realize I'm reading it. The story is so completely engaging, so alive. Sanderson weaves an intricate plot that always keeps you on your toes with unexpected events and light humor in between serious discoveries. However, the story can be violent at times, and might not be a good book for tweens. The wild chalklings are very dangerous in that they do kill people, which is depicted at least once in the story. In order to give the reader the fear Joel goes through the author creates some rather vivid scenes that can be pretty scary. The actual violence, however, is pretty minimal, given the topic. The story is well balanced, without too many scary scenes, just enough to perfect the plot. If you like a little bit of fear, then this is the perfect book to pick up next weekend. Although this 360 page book is labeled as teen fiction, the story will engage any reader.