Description
In an alternate reality a lot like our world, every person's physical size is directly proportional to their wealth. The poorest of the poor are the size of rats, and billionaires are the size of skyscrapers. Warner and his sister Prayer are destitute - and tiny. Their size is not just demeaning, but dangerous: day and night they face mortal dangers that bigger richer people don't ever have to think about, from being mauled by cats to their house getting stepped on.
There are no cars or phones built small enough for them, or schools or hospitals, for that matter - there's no point, when no one that little has any purchasing power, and when salaried doctors and teachers would never fit in buildings so small. Warner and Prayer know their only hope is to scale up, but how can two littlepoors survive in a world built against them?
From the bestselling author of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl comes a brilliant, warm, skewering social novel for our times in the tradition of Great Expectations, 1984 and Invisible Man.
Review
Set in the fictional country of Yewess, everyone's size is directly in proportion to their wealth. Therefore if you have plenty of munmun you are huge, and if you have none then you are tiny, the size of a rat.
This is the story of Warner, his sister Prayer and his best friend Usher. They are all littlepoors and life is not just difficult - it is down right dangerous as the larger humans don't even notice them. The only way to become bigger or “scale up” as they call it is to make lots of munmuns.
Warner’s life is crazy, tragic and full of unexpected twists and turns.
You will find this book hard to put down, and it is brilliantly written as a metaphor for all the injustice of every sort you can imagine that is wrong with our world. Jesse Andrews has created two worlds within this story that will keep you thoroughly entertained. Any one who enjoys satire, fast-paced storytelling and a highly original idea will love this book.
It will suit readers in Year 9 and up, and it would make a wonderful English novel as there are so many ideas that could be broken down and discussed further.
Reviewed by Michelle
