http://windupstories.com/books/ship-breaker/
Summary
Nailer is a ship breaker, one of a crew of young children, who are still small enough to pull the copper wiring from wrecked, obsolete oil tankers. Nailer, who is about twelve, will soon be too large to work this light crew, but is too small to have the strength required to work on the heavy crew. His future is grim. With a violent, drug addled father and no way to work, he risks starvation. Nailer's only hope is to find a lucky strike, which comes in the form of a clipper ship wrecked on shore by one of the storms known as City Killers. This fast ship, only owned by the very rich, holds enough treasure to ensure Nailer and his friend Pima, along with her mother, a better future. However, they also find on the ship, Nita, the sole survivor of the wrecked ship and the daughter of a wealthy shipping family. Nita's presence forces Nailer to make some difficult choices, the first being to save her life.
Critical Analysis
Ship Breaker is set after an environmental disaster in a dystopian future, where New Orleans is underwater and the impoverished people living on the Gulf Coast shore are dependent on an economy reaped from wrecked ships controlled by violent clans. Bacigalupi has created memorable characters that fit seamlessly into his dark, well-crafted world; readers will find kinship with the protagonist of Nailer and will root for him to overcome his desperate situation as he learns to trust in Nita's friendship. Other characters are believable within the science fiction framework of the novel; characters, such as Sloth, who, made hard from a living a brutal existence, leaves Nailer to drown in oil on a scavenging job and Tool, a half-man, who despite being genetically engineered for fighting defends and protects those weaker than himself.
Ship Breaker reads as a plausible result of a world with reckless disregard for the environment that becomes a society of haves and have nots. The plot takes the readers on a fast-paced journey as Nailer navigates a cut-throat environment to protect Nita and himself from his father and violent scavenge bosses. A thematically rich novel, Bacigalupi weaves together topics such as socioeconomic injustice, ecological awareness, survival, drug abuse and alcoholism into a complex and layered story with a overarching theme of loyalty. Nailer is loyal to his crew, loyal to an abusive father, and finally loyal to his friend Nita whose survival may depend on that loyalty. Bacigalupi has created a compelling and frighteningly bleak world, where he blends enough fact into fiction to make the reader believe in the dystopian future of Ship Breaker.
Reviews
Booklist, May 15, 2010, says in a starred review, "Clearly respecting his audience, Bacigalupi skillfully integrates his world building into the compelling narrative, threading the backstory into the pulsing action. The characters are layered and complex, and their almost unthinkable actions and choices seem totally credible. Vivid, brutal, and thematically rich, this captivating title is sure to win teen fans for the award-winning Bacigalupi."
A March 01, 2011 review in School Library Journal states, "The action and adventures are exciting, but occasionally quite bloody. Even more distressing are the harsh conditions faced by these youthful salvagers, much like contemporary third-world children. With an interesting mix of fact and fantasy, this title offers excellent potential for conversations on international child welfare issues."
Awards
In 2011, Ship Breaker won the Michael L. Printz Award and American Library Association Notable Books for Children Award and was nominated for the National Book Awards in 2010.
Connections
There are people in the world who work as ship breakers; most of the world's ships are dismantled on South Asian beaches, where working conditions and "environmental standards are notoriously bad" (Werth, 2013, para. 7).
Readers could research ship breaking and compare it to descriptions in the novel Ship Breakers.
Librarians could recommend Drowned Cities, Bacigalupi's companion book to Ship Breaker. It is set in the same world with different characters with the exception of Tool, who readers will learn more about.
Books In Print. Texas Woman's University. Accessed November 30, 2013
Werth, Christopher. 2013. "Where should old cargo ships go to die? Some Europeans say bring them home." PRI. Retrived from http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-10-21/where-should-old-cargo-ships-go-die-some-europeans-say-bring-them-home
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