A 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book
In Sally Gardner's stunning novel, set in a ruthless regime, an unlikely
teenager risks all to expose the truth about a heralded moon landing.
What if the football hadn't gone over the wall. On the other side of the
wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the
Motherland doesn't want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell -- who
has different-colored eyes, who can't read, can't write, Standish
Treadwell isn't bright -- sees things differently than the rest of the
"train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and
neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see
what the Motherland has been hiding. And it's big...One hundred very
short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel
readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly
humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.