Mark II [Paperback]

Chris Farnell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2006

After his best friend's death a boy learns to cope with the friend's clone, until the mystery behind the fatal accident starts to surface. This is...a powerful novel about love, loss, and the intractability of human longing for what is known and familiar."" --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8–10—When his best friend dies, Phil is upset, but not nearly as upset as when, just a few months later, the deceased boy's parents introduce him to their son's clone. The clone looks just like Mark, but is so clearly not him that at first Phil can only think of him as "it." Mark's sister Lauren and a classmate from high school, Kirsty, also have trouble accepting the new Mark-only his parents insist, awkwardly, that this is simply a different version of their beloved son. If readers buy into the premise that technology is able to produce a teen-sized clone from a few cells in just a few months, and that personality and memories can be added, they will then be able to ponder some of the questions that this book raises. What makes people unique-their cells, their memories, their personalities, their experiences? Mark, Phil, Kirsty, and Lauren take turns narrating, which is confusing and rather muddies the central themes, and none of them come up with any easy answers. Phil is a thoughtful teen who, while never accepting that the clone is his old friend in any way, does come to value the clone for himself. Unfortunately, his path to that realization meanders so much that many valuable insights are lost or hurried past along the way. The telling is breezy and British, with plenty of ripe profanity, but the complex issues are glossed over. For a very different treatment of cloning, direct readers to Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion (S & S, 2002).—Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library
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About the Author

Chris Farnell has been making up stories as far back as he can remember and started writing Mark II when he should have been studying for his school exams.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Tindal St Pr Ltd (October 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0954791398
• ISBN-13: 978-0954791391
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,889,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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