Streams of Babel [Hardcover]

Carol Plum-Ucci (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2008

In a New Jersey suburb, two women die of brain aneurysms within twenty-four hours--events that cause the government to suspect that a terrorist cell has unleashed a deadly biochemical agent. With each glass of water they drink, the people of Trinity Falls are poisoning themselves.

 

A world away in Pakistan, a sixteen-year-old computer genius working as a virtual spy for the United States sees an influx of chatter from extremists about a substance they call Red Vinegar that will lead to many deaths in Colony One. Can he warn the victims before it's too late?

 

A Printz Honor Award winner and two-time Edgar Allan Poe Award finalist, Carol Plum-Ucci explores disturbing new terrain in this riveting novel that examines the heroes and victims involved in a terrifying act of bioterrorism.

    

(20080401)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8–11—In 2002, high school outcast Cora Holman's mom dies of a mysterious brain aneurysm, preceded by flulike symptoms. Then Cora, Owen Eberman, and two of their friends gradually come down with a similar ailment. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, 16-year-old computer genius and cyber-spy Shahzad, who is working for the U.S. government, has uncovered information about a terror threat called Red Vinegar, and he is taken to New York in order to follow the terrorist chatter more directly. Through the alternating narratives and interwoven lives of six teens (including the child of a terrorist working on behalf of North Korea), Plum-Ucci offers a compelling tale of bioterror. It is, however, unclear why she chose to depict a group of religious terrorists celebrating by "popping champagne and drinking forties," unless, perhaps, it is to indicate hypocrisy in their ranks. The characters, particularly Shahzad, are well drawn and have unique voices, and the unresolved ending leaves a lot of room for thought and discussion. Ultimately, this is a tautly paced thriller that will force readers to think about the complexities of living in a post-9/11 world.—Kristin Anderson, Columbus Metropolitan Library System, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

“They will drink in December and die like mangy dogs in April,” reads the chilling chatter found by Pakistani hacker Shahzad, a prodigy who has been recruited to Long Island by American intelligence officials. There, the 16-year-old monitors chat rooms frequented by terrorists suspected of poisoning a water pipe in New Jersey, where two women have died and similar flulike symptoms have gripped three teens. With none of the book’s numerous vantage points delivering a terrorist’s point of view, the latest novel by Printz Honor winner Plum-Ucci is a bit one-dimensional, but matters are helped by the inclusion of Shahzad’s outsider’s perspective on American culture and by details that imply the multiethnic face of extremism. More problematic are the book’s distracting plot contrivances and unrealistic concentration of characters with dramatic backstories. Neither problem will bother readers seeking a page-turner, however, which this certainly is; but with writing that’s as commanding about “the smoke and mirrors” of Internet intelligence as it is about why a suburban hamlet might invite extremist rage, Plum-Ucci has also fleshed out a basic panic-inducing scenario into a thriller more thoughtful than most. Grades 8-11. --Jennifer Mattson

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152165568
• ISBN-13: 978-0152165567
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,289,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Plum-Ucci received one of the nation's top literary honors for her first novel, THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED, a suspense story set in the historic woods of Southern New Jersey. The novel received one of four Michael J. Printz Honor Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association, recognizing the best literature published for young adults. The novel also was a finalist in the Edgar Allan Poe Awards and was named to the Reader's International Children's Choice Awards List.

She is happy to report that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has purchased a SEQUEL TO THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED. It will be released in the spring of 2011. "For years, people asked if I would write a sequel. In fact, I don't think I've ever spoken for an audience where someone hasn't asked that," Plum-Ucci said. "I always said no because I couldn't think of anything good that would happen next. Well, one stormy Saturday night in the dead of winter, I got this totally hot idea and just went with it. It's a lot of years later, but I held out for artistic integrity--a story line that I knew would keep readers turning pages--and didn't try it just to piggy-back a book selling well. As the saying goes for me and HMH: 'We will sell no idea before its time.'"

The CREED SEQUEL focuses on Chris Creed's brother Justin, who, after four years have passed, is now 16. "The theme of bullying didn't carry over to this book--I'll be honest," Plum-Ucci said. "But that theme was always, to me, secondary to a relentless pursuit of truth theme, which engaged Torey Adams throughout. And that theme is still very present. I'm asking kids to look beyond what they can touch, see, smell--something they're not often asked to do by school districts, and I think it's both fun and important."

FIRE WILL FALL, a sequel to STREAMS OF BABEL was released by HMH in the spring of 2010. In STREAMS OF BABEL, terrorists poison the water supply in New Jersey (released in the spring of 2008), and in FIRE WILL FALL, the teenagers who drank the most WMD are fighting for their lives. "I think of FIRE as more of a character piece, so it surprised me pleasantly to see all the reviews coming in, calling it a page turner," Plum-Ucci said. Both books were immediately named Premiere Selections the Junior Library Guild upon release.

WHAT HAPPENED TO LANI GARVER, Plum-Ucci's second novel, is story of prejudice, friendship, popularity, tolerance, and individuality. The story raises a most important question: Might angels exist on earth? The novel has been selected as a featured book both in Seventeen Magazine and YM Magazine. It is named to the 2003 Best Books for Young Adults List, sponsored by the American Library Association, and is a 2004 Teen Top Ten nominee. It was nominated for the Michael L. Printz Awards for excellence in Young Adult Literature.

Plum-Ucci's third novel of THE SHE, was was nominated for BBYA (Best Books for Young Adults, The American Library Association) and received a starred review in Booklist. Her fourth novel, THE NIGHT MY SISTER WENT MISSING, was named a finalist in the Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

Plum-Ucci spent her childhood growing up on the barrier island of Brigantine, New Jersey, where her father was a funeral director. She lived overtop of the funeral home.

'My bedroom was such that if the floor were made of glass, I would have been gazing down into the face of a casket dweller,' she frequently tells audiences. 'When people ask me how I became a writer, I say it was in the middle of nights while growing up there.'

Plum-Ucci loves to tell her childhood funeral home antics, which have captivated teenage audiences across America.

She attended the Brigantine Public Schools, Atlantic City Friends School, and Holy Spirit High School, graduating in 1975. She earned her bachelor's degree in Communication from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1979. She attended Rutgers University and received her Master of Arts degree 2004.

Plum-Ucci worked as Staff Writer and Director of Publications for the Miss America Organization in Atlantic City from 1984 through 1999. She is the third generation of women in her family to contribute to Atlantic City's well-known fanfare. Her mother, Ellen Plum, was the first woman President, and her paternal grandmother, Ads Plum, was a member of the Hostess Committee.
She retired from corporate employ in June of 1999, 'about two days after my advance arrived for The Body of Christopher Creed,' she says. 'I loved being part of something historical like Miss America, and I have many great memories of working there. But I'd spent many years trying to become a published novelist, and I wanted to started enjoying that lifestyle as quickly as possible."

Her husband Rick owns the Ucci Piano Service. Together, they love gardening, going to the Margate Beach in the summers, watching Academy Award winning movies, and raising their daughter, Abbey.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A page-turner that hits close to home, July 24, 2008

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Streams of Babel (Hardcover)

In Carol Plum-Ucci's all-too-realistic nightmarish tale set in 2002, several teen characters narrate their experiences as terrorism targets a small town.

Seventeen-year-old Cora Holman's mother is a drug addict, so Cora isn't entirely shocked when she dies. Aleese wouldn't be the first addict to overdose, and both mother and daughter have been sick with the flu. Cora is still humiliated, though --- even moreso when one of the paramedics responding to her call is her neighbor, Scott Eberman. Scott is young and good-looking; his brother, Owen, is in Cora's class at school. Another neighbor, popular Rain Steckerman's father, who happens to be a supervisor in the USIC (United States Intelligence Coalition), also shows up.

Scott mentions that his mother is also sick with the flu. He insists that Cora come over to his house to recuperate. Cora, however, refuses. She crawls into bed after the ambulance removes her mother's body, left with her usual resentful thoughts about her mother, complicated by Aleese's death. Cora had been raised by her grandmother while Aleese traveled the world as a freelance photographer. When Aleese injured her arm, she had returned home. Cora's grandmother died, but Cora and Aleese had never grown close, partly because Aleese had been addled by her morphine addiction. Cora did not even learn who or where her father might be. The central mystery of Cora's life is why her mother had never loved her. How could Aleese leave her daughter for so long?

Owen Eberman, meanwhile, has become sick. But he is not nearly as ill as his mother, who is suffering from a horrid headache. His mother is determined to drown her flu by guzzling gallons of tap water. Owen's good friend, Rain Steckerman, shows up. She, too, is suffering from flu symptoms, so Owen, Rain and Mrs. Eberman sit drinking water and watching a movie. But suddenly Mrs. Eberman requests that she be taken to the hospital. Her headache is worse, and her nose has begun to bleed.

At the hospital, her paramedic son Scott discusses the possibilities with Mr. Steckerman, who reassures him that it's a coincidence that his mother and Aleese both suffered the same flu symptoms and bled through their noses. Yet, it is unusual for Steckerman to be at the hospital, and he admits that he is sending information to the Centers for Disease Control.

Scott realizes Steckerman is eliminating the possibility that this strange illness could be caused by terrorists. And, although the USIC tested the water in their small town, Trinity Falls, and found it clean, Scott can't help suspecting the water his mother drank by the gallon. Steckerman also mentions they have experts watching terrorists the world over --- including a 16-year-old computer hacker in Pakistan who has been invaluable to U.S. intelligence. In fact, the young Pakistani informant has captured suspicious chat room dialogue, which seems to imply poisoned water somewhere.

Shahzad Hamdani, the young Pakistani computer hacker, picks up the story, even as Scott Eberman's mother dies in the hospital. At his uncle's computer cafe in a tiny village, Shahzad sits at a terminal spying on terrorists. His dangerous quest becomes even more hazardous when USIC officials decide to send him to America, where he believes the terrorists are carrying out their poisoned water mission. Can Shahzad help U.S. intelligence agents discover their targets soon enough to save them? Can the extremists be stopped?

Carol Plum-Ucci handles a huge cast of characters skillfully, making each well-rounded, individual and true-to-life. Consider young Tyler Ping, who enters late in the story. Tyler eats pills and hacks computers. He is bullied at school and yearns for his mother to act like she cares for him (Tyler's mother is distracted because of her shocking double life). And, although he's only been in the U.S. a year, he's completely fluent in English because "Words don't hate me like people do." Those sympathetic teens, plus the urgency of STREAMS OF BABEL's almost too frightening and realistic plot, make this book a gripping page-turner. Readers will feel compelled to immediately read to the end to learn how it all plays out.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

5.0 out of 5 stars Why has this title gone out of print?, September 12, 2009

By 

Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Streams of Babel (Hardcover)

It's interesting that such a well-written page-turner would go out of print so quickly. Might it have something to do with the fact that it's one of the few books for kids that presents a positive view of the U.S. government's anti-terrorism efforts post 9/11? My only fault with the book is that its stand-in for the Department of Homeland Security operates almost faultlessly, with no red tape or bureaucratic snafus, when the reality at any government agency is sadly different.

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine story of biological suspense, February 15, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Streams of Babel (Hardcover)

When Cora's mother dies, Cora assumes her mother overdosed on painkillers taken for years - and is shocked to learn a neighbor also died of a brain aneurysm the same night. And when Cora and her friends become ill with a mysterious flu thereafter and officials arrive in her small town, a terrorist attack is suspected in this fine story of biological suspense.