Erratum [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Walter Sorrells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2008 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

When Jessica Sternhagen walks into a bookstore and finds a volume entitled Her Lif waiting for her, she thinks it’s a joke. Who left the book for her? And shouldn’t the title be Her Life? This printer’s error turns out to be the first in a series of bizarre happenings. As Jessica reads, she realizes life is about to radically change. This stunning thriller by master storyteller Walter Sorrells raises as many questions as it answers about the power of books, the importance of free thought, and the potential our decisions have to change—and even save—the world.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–8—An erratum is a writer or publisher's error in printing, or an error list with corrections. In this story, the erratum is in the universe, and it is up to Jessica Sternhagen, age 10, and her friend Dale to make the corrections. When Jessica gets a copy of a book with a misprint in the title, Her Lif, she discovers that the book is all about her actual life. Its words change as she makes choices, and she proves to be a smart and courageous heroine as she faces danger and evil at every turn. Dale lives with his dysfunctional family in poverty, and Jessica lives in a nice house with her supportive parents. They have often wondered if they were born into the wrong family because they never felt that they belonged. Now it turns out that they were right, because in the process of saving the universe and stopping the evil alternate world from taking over, they discover that Jessica really belongs in the unhappy family on the wrong side of the tracks, and Dale is the one with the father who plays catch with his son and whose mother bakes cookies. Jessica must make the ultimate choice to stay with her "right" but unhappy family in this story in which Alice's Adventures in Wonderland meets The Giver, and choices do indeed have consequences.—Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School Library, Loveland, CO
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From Booklist

Always a reader, seventh-grader Jessica Sternhagen is intrigued by an old bookshop that appears in her small Minnesota town. There, she is given a curious book about herself that keeps changing. Our world, she learns, has alternate histories; her role is to keep it on the one true, correct path. She is, in fact, the guardian of the universe. But before she can save our world from disappearing, she and her best friend, Dale, have to make serious choices about which lives they want to live. This fast-paced science-fiction story involves theories about time, string theory, and dark energy as well as difficult questions about friendship and compassion. It also features the largest public library in the world, a scary dog named Cerberus, and a suspicious vacuum-cleaner salesman who wants to do away with books altogether. The suspense is handled so well that readers caught up in the action will not mind that characters are not particularly well developed, the science is somewhat muddled, and loose ends dangle from the plot. Grades 5-8. --Kathleen Isaacs

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (October 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525478329
• ISBN-13: 978-0525478324
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,133,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story, but a little scattered, June 3, 2009

By 

Leslie Blount "leslibrary" (Addison, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Erratum (Hardcover)

People keep telling Jessica that she has to find a book about "Her Lif" but she can't seem to hold onto it. They also tell her that she has to save the universe but she doesn't know how. This story has an interesting premise, but all the science made it a little hard to follow. Things keep changing around Jessica, and people try to explain why, but she, along with the reader, might get confused when dark matter and sting theory are involved. For this story, I would have liked a little less science and more information about the characters. Overall, I liked this book while reading it, but at the end I was left scratching my head.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic science fiction thriller for older elementary school children, October 23, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Erratum (Hardcover)

In Alsberg, Minnesota, seventh grader Jessica Sternberg knows she has always been different as she is taller than all the boys and can jump higher than any of them. However, she prefers reading to basketball to the chagrin of the basketball coach who believes she would make them a state contender. Thus it is not shocking for her to enter Queeg & Rosewood Antiquarian where the owners insist they have her book already paid for at a cost of $3719 to give her. The book is titled "Her Lif". Jessica looks at the last page and realizes that the owners try to kill her. She escapes by grabbing a paperweight that she drops outside; the building vanishes.

Jessica runs into her best friend Dale McDuffie who got a call from the most famous library in the world insisting he needs to return his borrowed copy of My Lif. Soon the pair is involved in all sorts of adventures caused by the ERRATUM to My Lif. Whereas villain Bob Robbins wants to vacuum a hole in the universe; Jessica is destiny's child trying to prevent it from happening.

Though the audience is fourth to sixth grade, ERRATUM is a fantastic complex science fiction thriller that uses string theory as the basis of the adventures of a wonderful seventh grader that children and adults of all ages will relish. Jessica is a terrific tweener though at times she seems much more mature as she struggles to add the "e" to Her Lif and eliminate the ERRATUM. With libraries never the same and an incredible final Twilight Zone like twist, fans will root for Jessica as she tries to save the universe.

Harriet Klausner