On June 1, 2011, award-winning author Andrea White will release ‘Windows on the World’, the first book in her trilogy of science fiction novels for young adults titled ‘UpCity Chronicles’.
‘Windows on the World’ charts the intertwining paths of two young girls living nearly a century apart. In 2083, streetwise 13-year-old Shama Katooee is mysteriously recruited to attend the Chronos Academy, an elite boarding school dedicated to time travel. Leaving behind a cold foster mother and a dangerous neighborhood, she struggles to understand why she was chosen to join such privileged classmates. When she travels back to September 11, 2001 to meet Maye Jones, another foster child of the same age on a field trip to the World Trade Center, the reader discovers that Shama’s training has prepared her for the ultimate mission — saving her own life.
The author crafts a future both familiar and strange to readers. Specially-designed meals emerge from FoodNow nutrition machines. Holographic messengers deliver news, and teachers instruct classes of over a million students via Teleschool. Personal flying taxis run on red, blue, and green gaseous highways below an artificial moon that advertises across the night sky. The crime and heat lead wealthy citizens to establish the insulated UpCities, built on elevated platforms far above the chaos on the earth’s surface where Shama has spent much of her life.
The release of Windows on the World coincides with the ten-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the U.S. “Two girls from different worlds — but sharing a common humanity — provide a perspective on a defining moment in our national consciousness,” White says.
“Historical events such as 9/11 tend to be viewed abstractly as the culmination of great forces,” says White. “But at its heart, history consists of the lives, stories, and hopes of individual human beings.”
In conjunction with the release of ‘Windows on the World’, White invites readers to participate in a contest to more fully develop the UpCities through text or illustration. Winning entries will receive an autographed copy of ‘Windows on the World’, a detailed post on the UpCity Chronicles website and a visit from the author to the winner’s school. Full contest details are available at www.upcitychronicles.com .
Namelos publishing is also offering a free ebook edition of ‘Windows on the World’ during the month of May. Interested readers can log on to http://www.namelos.com/blog.php to download a complimentary copy.
