Leviathan

Westerfeld, S. (2009).  Leviathan. New York, NY:  Simon Pulse.  15 year old Alek is the son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Serbia. There is unrest in his country, so his tutors lure him to the CyKlop Stormwalker, a clanker. Before leaving, he finds out that both his parents have been murdered. They make their way to Switzerland, where his father had bought a home to hide him. Deryn Sharp is a girl pretending to be a boy in order to get into London’s Air Service, but an accident led her to the Leviathan, which is a fabricated beast (whale) and machine. They are attacked and the ship comes down. As Alek is hiding in Switzerland, he sees the Leviathan fall, he uses his CyKlop Sotrmwalker to help them, but it is ruined. Since he is found out, he uses the Cyklop’s engines to get the Leviathan running and they, along with Deryn, head to the Ottoman Empire. I enjoyed reading how there are different animals joined (fabricated) with machines to get certain jobs done. I think this novel would be a great companion when teaching World War I. The teacher can create a web quest so that the students can research the participants of the war and compare events to the book. Westerfeld provided an acknowledgment where he explains what is real in the book. He also provides a very cool map of Europe. In this novel, Westerfeld weaves the elements of science fiction and bits of history together. He combines machines that are part machine and part living being with the early 1900’s time period, when cars were barely rolling on the streets.