The Knife of Never Letting Go

Ness, P. (2008).  The knife of never letting go. Boston: MA: Candlewick Press

A month before Todd Hewitt officially becomes a man, he's forced to flee from the only place and the only people he has ever known, to a place he doesn't even know exists, with a girl from a foreign land.   In the world Todd has lived in for 12 years, men and women can hear men's every thought, while men cannot hear women's thoughts.  Todd has grown up in Prentisstown- a place where he was led to believe the native creatures, Spackle, have infected them with the "noise germ" that causes everyone to hear the thoughts.  Additionally, Todd has been told his whole life that the the noise germ killed all the women.  When Todd hears a silence in the woods, he discovers a girl and his parent-like figures send him off to escape to a different town and worn them of the Prentisstown army.  With the army close on their heals, Todd, is dog, and Viola (a girl explorer who crash landed on the planet) go through a series of close calls and hardships, all while Todd continues to learn of the lies he's been taught his whole life- the germ disease didn't kill the women, the women were killed.  Other towns do exist, but Prentisstown people are forbidden to enter.  Boys become men in Prentisstown by killing a man.  And ultimately, Todd learns, he will not escape, upon arriving at his final destination, where the noise mysteriously stops.

This fantasy fiction of another planet keeps the reader turning the pages, in order to keep unfolding the secrets of Prentisstown and Todd's past.  Young adults will find themselves getting lost in this new world where thoughts can be heard and secrets are hard to keep- and probably thanking their stars they don't actually live in a such a world.  The ending will make readers want to read the next book immediately.  Here is a book trailer for the Knife of Never Letting Go.