After the Ashes
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- 9,99 €
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- 9,99 €
Publisher Description
In 1883, on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies, thirteen-year-old Katrien Courtland is determined to prove Darwin's theory of natural selection. Unfortunately, nothing causes her Aunt Greet more angst than Katrien crawling around the muddy jungle collecting bugs in the name of science -- and in the company of a native boy, no less! If only Katrien would take an interest in running a household and making friends with other girls. But Katrien has no interest in changing, especially if it means socializing with the likes of mean Brigitta Burkhart. Then, one stifling afternoon, Katrien's world turns upside-down when the nearby volcano Krakatau erupts with a terrifying blast. For days, a deathly ash rains down on the Javan coast. Amidst the chaos, Katrien knows her only hope of survival is to flee the jungle with the one person she vowed she'd never befriend.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Joiner uses the devastating 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatau as the basis of her first book. When readers meet 13-year-old Katrien Courtlandt, she is writing an admiring letter to Charles Darwin from her home in Java, where she has just finished reading On the Origin of Species. In her spare time, she collects beetles to contribute to his research, but her father and aunt believing she has become too unladylike and unsociable limit her time in the jungle, try to teach her how to run a household, and encourage her to spend time with a "polite and kind" girl named Brigitta, rather than her native friend Slamet. When Krakatau erupts, ash fall and tsunamis wipe out the majority of the population of Katrien's town, claiming the lives of many close to her; Katrien and Brigitta form a reluctant partnership, which transforms into a friendship. Joiner's story is slow to start, but once the eruption and its aftermath are underway, it shifts into a breakneck, and often heartbreaking, coming-of-age survival story. Ages 10 up.
