Myers, Walter Dean. On A Clear Day. New York: Crown, 2014. 978-0-385-38754-5. 244 p. $17.99. Gr. 9 and up.

Dahlia Grillo, a Gator, lives in the year 2035 where the chasm between the haves and have-nots has widened, and the world is now under the control of C8, corporations that operate purely for their own benefit. Gators are the people trying to live together in small closed off communities so that the Sturmers, gangs of thugs, don’t prey on what few resources are available to people in the future.  A team of young people who want to stop C8 and uncover the root of their corruption travel to England in hope of learning who controls C8.  The characters are fully flushed out and unlike many dystopian novels the main characters are eclectic from a variety of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Dystopian      Robin Burns, Salisbury High School

Readers who enjoy dystopian stories will find this gritty story both compelling and disturbing.  The story is similar to the television show Torchwood Miracle Day in that the world has undergone a cultural and societal change thrusting everyone under the control of large corporations.  I found this book to be a good addition to fiction collections looking for another option in the growing dystopian genre.