The Adventures of Spider and Ruby: A Post Global-Warming Future

Spider lives in a small wooden houseboat with his parents and twelve-year-old twin brother, Luke, in a post-global-warming future where the planet is flooded. People either live on the water, in large greenhouses under the sea, or on The Island, a man-made island controlled by The Chosen.

Ruby lives with her parents and grandfather in one of the greenhouses deep beneath the sea. Spider accidently discovers her world while avoiding capture by the Collectors, tax collectors who take all his family’s fish catch for The Island, leaving them with barely enough food to survive. 

Spider’s brother has had it with the unfairness of his family’s treatment and runs off to start a revolution. Unfortunately, Luke is captured by the Patrollers and taken to a prison on The Island.

Author Tanni Haas has created a fast-paced middle school Novel, Journey to Justice: The Adventures of Spider and Ruby, showing the effects of an unjust caste system and the difficulties people may encounter in a post-global-warming world. l noticed a few editorial glitches that pulled me away from this entertaining read, but for the most part, the book flowed nicely, and the characters and settings felt real. I also wondered how Ruby, exiled deep under the sea in an air bubble, learned how to swim during one of the daring escape scenes. 

However, most middle school kids won’t even notice this and will learn about the inequalities imbedded in a caste system, the damage global warming is doing to our environment, and perhaps generate classroom discussions as to what can be done to avoid a Spider and Ruby future. 

Pop’s Rating.

About the Author

Tanni Haas has written five books anthed many short stories which have appeared in a variety of publications. His writings have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Greek, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.

“Journey to Justice: The Adventures of Spider and Ruby” is his first middle grade novel. He bills the book as the first book in a series of Spider and Ruby books. Haas has also written Making it in the Political Blogosphere and The Pursuit of Public Journalism. You can reach him by email at [email protected].