This is a teaser for my forthcoming book, Food: Generation Mars, Book Four.
Stranded on the Moon without enough food, parents in two competing bases try to save their children by sending them to Mars on an aging spaceship. The trip takes longer than the supplies last. As food runs out, the social order crumbles and factions form. Keiron Byrne (12 year old cousin to series protagonists Cas and Ori Byrne-Alli), Ro Cook (14 year old crush, bully, and eventual nemesis of Keiron), and Jun Tian (12 year old prodigy from the opposing base who has a secret that might save them all) must navigate starvation, racism, betrayal, and faulty tech on a janky ship as it makes its way to Mars.
Generation Mars is a children's book series that follows the first kids born on that planet. My goal is to provide interesting material for young but advanced readers. From sentence to narrative structure, I try not to write "for kids" while also writing for kids. Each book of the series has outgrown its predecessors, as the protagonists become more aware of their world. With this book, I've reached what I've started calling "The Lord of the Flies Threshold". The characters are 12-14, but, other than that, is it even a kids book? There's no sex. There is violence, but it is more allusion than graphic. There are some pretty deep thoughts on what it means to be a morally functional human. I dunno. Give it a read and let me know what you think.
Caveat: This is still a work in progress and subject to change. There may be errors here: spelling, grammatical, technical, philosophical. Feel free to point them out.