The List by Patricia Forde
My name is Rya. I am in middle school and I enjoy reading, writing, swimming, and backpacking.
The List by Patricia Ford is a beautifully crafted adventure story about the shortage of something that most of us wouldn’t think would be possible to have too little of. But in the city of Ark, there is a shortage of words-only 500 to go around. John Noa, the leader of Ark, claims this protects the usually arrogant human species from redoing something like the Melting, a tragic event that left Ark as the only safe place left on Earth. There are, however, exceptions, such as the wordsmith and his apprentice who know many more words that were known to man before the Melting. Foreign words like “apples,” “ask,” and even “hello.” Non-list words.
Letta, the wordsmith’s apprentice, finds a strange boy in her home one day. He does not speak list, instead he knows the foreign tongue that speaks of a world long ago. She soon learns he is a Desecrator, an enemy of the New World. If anyone finds him Letta will certainly be banished. This is not the only pressing matter Letta has to be concerned about. When her beloved master, Benjamin, goes missing on a search for words, she finds out things she never knew before about Noa and the city of Ark, and a faint hope she has that something will still appear on the horizon after so long.
This story, which is a perfect combination between fantasy and science fiction, was an incredibly written story about hope, love, fear, and trust.
