How do you explain how good it is without a dozen spoiler alerts. The clip featuring a woman manually assembling a circuit breaker in. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of ship breaker by paolo bacigalupi. Drowned cities is not a sequel or part of a clear series, but is set in the same world as shipbreaker. Paolo bacigalupis ship breaker is a science fiction story written for a young adult audience.
Ship breaker is set in a postoil world warmed drastically by the greenhouse effect. No matter when you are there you can alsways find people doing this. Reading along and finding yourself in outer space, under water or in a future you never envisioned creates the. You may have heard of the companion book, the drowned cities.
This thrilling bestseller and national book award finalist is a gritty, highstakes adventure of a teenage boy faced with conflicting loyalties, set in a dark future america devastated by the forces of climate change. The book ship breaker by paolo bacigalupi have two main themes. Over the course of the novel, he considers how to become successful in the world in which he was raised. Climate change and violent storms have put much of the gulf coastal area under water. The place nailer finds himself at the end of the novel is not the same. Ship breakers move barrels of oil to shore from a ship that is being dismantled for scrap in the port city of chittagong, bangladesh, on july 24, 2008. Hopefully this will help any other teachers that have run into the same problem i had. The language of the novel isnt too difficult, but the themes like how we define family and what it means to be human are nuanced and multifaceted. The hero, nailer, lives a gritty, desperate life scavenging copper wire from the ducts of beached oil tankers while dreaming of sailing away on one of the hightech clipper ships that.
This concepttrailer is based in the novel ship breaker from paolo bacigalupi. In this gripping, eerily prescient scifi thriller that kirkus described as masterful, toola halfmanhalfbeast. Most of the story takes place on bright sands beach, where nailer and pima live and work as ship breakers. It was a finalist for the 2010 national book award for young peoples literature and won the 2011 michael l. In a world ravaged by climate change, nailer is a teenage boy who salvages parts from old tankers. Its a thrilling, fastpaced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future. Currently in my english class, we are reading the novel ship breaker, and are assignment is to cast three of the characters from the book if there was to be a future movie, based on there similar physical features and acting experience. A vocabulary list featuring ship breaker by paolo bacigalupi, chapters 16. Its located on the gulf coast, and is right next to the remains of a drowned city which is nicknamed the teeth. Choose from 57 different sets of ship breaker flashcards on quizlet. Sloth decides to leave him to his fate not super nice, and nailer eventually finds his. Set initially in a future shanty town in americas gulf coast region, where grounded. This was created for a 40 minute time slot but can be easily altered to.
When paolo bacigalupis young adult novel ship breaker begins, nailer, a boy in his late teens, is helping. Ship breaker little, brown book group, 2011 in the shadow of the dinosaurs early mesozoic tetrapods, nicholas c. But when his crew discovers an attractive girl amid a shipwreck, nailer chooses to believe that nina is indeed the heiress she claims to be and that if he helps her and protects her ship, he may change his own fate forever. Set in a dark future devastated by climate change, tool of war is the third book in a major adventure series by a bestselling and awardwinning science fiction author and starring the most provocative character from the acclaimed novels ship breaker and the drowned cities. An excellent book, aimed at young adults and so containing some violence and mildish swearing, ship breaker tells the tale of nailer, scratching a living in the gulf of mexico in a dystopian future of climate change and limited power and food. The polar ice caps have melted and new orleans is underwater. And people thought they knew what it meantit was a thing everyone had an opinion aboutthat it was all you had when you didnt have anything else, that family was there, that blood was thicker than water, whatever. I chose to cast nailer lopez main character, nita a. Ship breaker may seem like a sea level or base camp book at firsthey, some action books arebut upon closer inspection, we realize its actually a bit of a hike. Much of ship breakers success is due to its humor without which, it would have been borderline depressing. Ship breaker is a 2010 young adult novel by paolo bacigalupi set in a post apocalyptic future. Learn ship breaker with free interactive flashcards. Ship breaker, the new novel from highly acclaimed author paolo bacigalupi, poses a challenge to critics.
Paolo bacigalupi is a rising star in the science fiction community. Ship breaker paolo bacigalupi by jenna allen on prezi. Ship breaker is a 2010 young adult novel by paolo bacigalupi set in a dystopian future. My year old son and i do nightly outloud reading and had read shipbreaker some time previously and loved it. In ship breaker, which was nominated for a national book award in. Because hes small, hes able to access smaller places in the ship. Ship breaker by paolo bacigalupi overdrive rakuten. Climate change and violent storms have put much of the gulf coastal area under water, petroleumbased fuel is scarce, and oil tankers are obsolete. Human civilization is in decline for ecological reasons.
Most of the people work as ship breakers, and recieve very little food and pay. A gritty teen betrays his father and flees his grim existence in a postglobalwarming gulf coast village to protect a young woman he barely knows in this gripping futuristic thriller. It is where the salvage crews live and the salvage companies. Complete summary of paolo bacigalupis ship breaker. Bacigalupis standout talent is to immerse the reader, and in ship breaker we are taken to a dystopian future, post peak oil, where nailer and his crew scavenge for copper and other valuable stuff in the guts of wrecked ships washed up by the retreating tides of the accelerated age. In a futuristic americas gulf coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, nailer works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota and hopefully live to see another day.
But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, nailer faces the most important decision of his life. People who like ship breaker book by paolo bacigalupi c. The book is set on the gulf coast in america and imagines what life would be like after the seas have risen. Commentary and guiding questions for each chapter 29 in all. Review of ship breaker by paolo bacigalupi speculiction. A study guide is a comprehensive aid to reflective reading.
In americas gulf coast region, grounded oil tankers are being broken down for. The second main theme is that blood relation doesnt family. Ship breaker is a gripping read, with an engaging protagonist, but it is the world building that is the real star. It was just a wordcould see its letters all strung together. Grub shacks wont take her because the ship breakers wont buy anything. Ship breaker reads very much like a ya version of his hugo and nebulawinning the windup girl. Bright sands beach is the main setting of the novel. Ship breaker is a novel by paolo bacigalupi that was published in 2010. Strip the ship for all its worth or rescue its lone survivor. Nailer is part of a crew that breaks up tankers that are no longer in use. Although its never explicitly stated that ship breaker takes place in the same world, it is similar enough paolo bacigalupi is destined to be one of the grand old masters of science fiction in. Nailer and his crew work here taking aparte ships for money.
Ship breaker is a relatively new book, written in 2010. From there, i forced myself to read ship breaker and finish it. There are many huge cargo ships scattered across it with people climbing all over it like ants. This thrilling bestseller and national book award finalist is a gritty, highstakes adventure of a teenage boy faced with conflicting loyalties, set. This thrilling bestseller and national book award finalist is a gritty, highstakes adventure of a teenage boy faced with conflicting loyalties, set in a dark future.
To get to her fathers allies up the coast, they will have to contend with marauding mercenaries, strange dogmen. With that, there are not a lot of lesson plans to gain inspiration from or to use. Fifteenyearold nailer works on the light crew as a ship breaker, salvaging metals from abandoned oil tankers. There are different crew types for different people.
On the gulf coast nearby, humanity has reverted to survival mode and a small economy has grown from the scavenging of washed up oil tankers for bits of copper and other valuables. I dont know, but as it kept building up, i got more and more sucked into the world and even read up to three in the morning on a school day. The light crews tear at small fittings, strip copper, brass, nickel,aluminum, and stainless steel, and others hunt for hidden petrol and ship oil pockets. In americas gulf coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quotaand. Paolo lives in western colorado with his wife and son. The characters are multi dimensional and drive the plot. The author of pump six and other stories and the windup girl, he is both a nebula and hugo award nominee, and the winner of the theodore sturgeon memorial award for best science fiction short story and two locus awards for best collection and best novelette.
Ship breaker is a 2010 young adult novel by paolo bacigalupi set in a postapocalyptic future. One of my few criticisms is that some of the characters were lacking in development, but from reading the excerpt from the first two chapters of the second book in the series, some may have their full identities revealed in later books. This study guide consists of approximately 25 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of ship breaker. Fraser, hansdieter sues, aug 28, 1997, science, 435 pages. Ship breaker is a printzaward winning book by paolo bacigalupi. One of science fictions pleasures is the dislocation it confronts readers with, sometimes from page one. This third book in a major series by a bestselling science fiction author, printz award winner, and national book award finalist is the gripping story of the most provocative character from his acclaimed novels ship breaker and the drowned cities. Paolo bacigalupis young adult novel ship breaker 2010 was a finalist for. Original sections on setting, genre, themes, etc 4. Book trailer created by gayle lawrence, who is a librarian in sand springs, ok summary. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, nailer faces the most. The first theme is that if you have smarts, luck and work hard you can achieve anything, even something that seems impossible. The book takes place in the future after the seas have risen to the point of flooding coastal cities. Maya, photoshop, ae, cool edit, premiere and sound forge.
Nailer works to break up ships left stranded in the new world and he inhabits a vividly imagined world. Ship breaker follows the story of nailer, an impoverished child laborer who lives in a world where. When he discovers a survivor on a grounded ship, he must decide whether to do his job or to rescue her. As hes working with a crewmember, sloth, though, he falls into a vat of oil. The book, the first of three in a series by american science fiction author. The first of three books, and what a start to an incredible journey. The story takes place somewhere along the gulf of mexico, sometime in the future.