In Best of All Worlds, Printz Honor-winning author Kenneth Oppel (Airborn; The Nest) delivers an inventive, dramatic work of speculative fiction about accepting uncertainty and surviving change.
Thirteen-year-old Xavier Oak reluctantly joins his father, Caleb, and pregnant stepmother, Nia, on a weekend trip to the family cottage, leaving behind his mother and older brother. The next morning, Zay wakes to discover that the cottage is no longer lakeside, but situated on rolling pastures with crops, livestock, and a "cheery red" barn. Trial and error suggest the Oaks are trapped in a "little snow globe" dome with advanced technology that can replicate Earth. The family is entirely alone, apart from omniscient, invisible observers who miraculously intervene during the difficult birth of Zay's half-brother, Noah. The Oaks slowly learn to homestead and provide for themselves as they accept their situation--until three years later, when the Jackson family arrives.
Oppel grounds the novel's surreal elements in its well-wrought characters. The Jacksons are perfect foils to the Oaks: the former are white, Christian gun-owners and climate change deniers from Tennessee while the latter are an eco-conscious mixed-race Canadian family (Xavier and his father are both white; Nia is of Haitian descent). Zay's first-person narration is immensely relatable as he mourns the loss of life as he knew it, bears life as it is, and eventually falls in love with Mackenzie, the Jacksons' eldest daughter. Oppel brilliantly withholds confirming the truth of the Oaks's and Jacksons' circumstances until the novel's crucial climax, ensuring readers will race through the chapters to Oppel's expert landing of a close. An excellent read-alike for fans of Neal Shusterman and Gary Paulsen. --Cristina Iannarino, children's book buyer, Books on the Square, Providence, R.I.