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by Scott Westerfeld (2009)
An adventurous, thought-provoking, historical, steampunk re-imagining of the causes and beginnings of The Great War. Moving back and forth between the machine-based "Clankers" and the DNA-manipulating "Darwinists" until the two main characters collide, Westerfeld creates quite an amazing world of 8-legged tanks, flying whales, and young people caught up in a Europe on the brink of war. Great illustrations, old fashioned pen & ink, and a lot of invented vocabulary.
Good for many discussions, including reasons for war, loyalty, evolution, decisions that alter history, gender roles...
Of course, there is more to the story that goes unresolved than not, as this is surely part of a planned... trilogy? hexology? octology?
I used the "sex" tag only due to the references, early, few and not dwelt on, to what our hero(ine) must hide, and is glad she does not have ample of, in order to pose as a boy. I suppose most 4-5th graders could understand and handle it, but ya never know...
