Luanne Armstrong

Pete gets shuffled off to his grandmother's farm when his parents go their separate ways for the summer. His dad, a musician, has a tour through Russia, and his mom is in Africa. Much to Pete's surprise he finds that he really likes his grandmother, her relaxed way of living (chocolate donuts for breakfast and lots of ice cream when needed), and the farm. When his grandmother tells him stories about his great, great grandfather, Pete's imagination gets fired up, and he starts to believe that he can find the gold that Pierre, his great, great, grandfather's friend, hid somewhere nearby. Then his grandmother suffers an injury, and his parents are rushing back from their work to take him back to Victoria, and it might all come to too sudden an end. He has to do something, and fast. An easy, fast read for anyone in grades 5-7… (more)

************MAJOR SPOILERS*************

I just finished this book. It was very amusing to read a dystopia set in Vancouver and rural BC. The author seems to be just as paranoid about corporate takeover as I am LOL
I found the writing wanting but the story itself was interesting enough to keep me reading.
The whole trio of Matt, Lia and Star seemed unrealistic to me and pointless because it never amounted to anything in the story, it was anti-climactic.
I didn't think the sex scenes had to be spelled out in quite that detail as I prefer something to be left to the imagination. It's also just laughable that Matt would have become so attached to a girl who whipped through his life so fast.
I don't know what all the visions of light and colours meant that Matt was seeing nor how meeting Star could have had such a profound impact on his life. Nor how the supposed premonitions he thought he was having fit into the story. They amounted to nothing by the end of the story.
Ama seemed realistic enough except when she suddenly became a weak person and didn't know what to do. A strong women does not fold that easily, I didn't buy it at all.
The whole corporate takeover and devastation was interesting because there really was nothing in the story that couldn't actually happen. Everything mentioned are things that we see coming now. I know the author is a fan of Maude Barlow and the Council of Canadians because the entire scenario was based on exactly the things that the Council are now fighting. I had to laugh out loud when in the last few pages the author mentions the future and the Barlow laws! LOL This would be Maude Barlow obviously, I had to chuckle.
While I think that a lot of this was possible and even likely if we don't stop corporations now some of it was unrealistic such as the drastic climate change. There is a slow climate change but the corporations would take over long before we would see any climate change to this degree. I had to laugh when the author blamed the corporate takeover of the world on International Free Trade agreements. This IS realistic! LOL
The fight to save the commune was ridiculous because if a scenario like this ever did occur the corporations would just quietly use chemical warfare on everyone and then move in. I also think it was unrealistic that the people in the other community left their community to come and fight with the commune in the forest over the winter, If it really happened like that the corporations would have seized the former when it was left unprotected.
Overall it was fun to read as some of it has very real possiblities in our future.… (more)