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MARVELOUS MIDDLE GRADE MONDAY

Until the Celebration (Book 3, Green Sky Trilogy)

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

In the final book of the Green Sky Trilogy, “Until the Celebration,” Zilpha Keatley Snyder brings it to a close. The third book continues the hard task of the “Rejoyning,” uniting the Erdlings and the Kindar into one peaceful society. You would think not a difficult task because they once were united, but got separated when the founding fathers had different goals in mind for this new society that they created on “Green Sky.”

The Kindar, farmers, non-meat eaters, gliding through the air in their flowing robes, were the innocent ones with no negative thoughts, non-violent, living high in the tree tops (ivory tower?) The Erdlings, perhaps a baser human form, were stuck earth bound, under the root, hunters and flesh eaters, wearing animal skins. The rejoyning is difficult, with tedious and mundane tasks such as distributing supplies between the wealthy Kindar and the poor Erdlings, and educating the Erdling children to the ways of the Kindar.

The adolescents who first exposed the lies of the Ol-Zhaan, Raamo, Genaa, and Neric, have taken a back seat to Teera and Pomma, the children with extraordinary abilities to “pense” or sense thoughts and emotions, and also have other abilities. The children are revered as symbols of reunification and spirit powers. They live in a “gilded cage” because of their sacred standing. This is no way for children to live, so they escape. Fearing splinter factions, revolutionaries or reactionaries have taken the childrenm, the rejoining threatens to collapse. The ending of the trilogy is actually a beginning. After pain, suffering, and loss, children--Kindar and Erdling--show the way of the future by using their spirit-gifts to truly unite the two peoples into one:  the Zhaan of Green Sky.

Critical readers have said the pacing and action isn’t as fast as in more recent books with the same type of theme, that war is bad and the world needs to unite all peoples. But this book was one of the first to build a separated world to show us that we are all one people and need to set aside our prejudices and learn to live together in peace and harmony.

Next week, I'll review another Zilpha Keatley Snyder middle grade novel.

More information on Zilpha Keatley Snyder at:  http://www.zksnyder.com/

Tags:

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Until the Celebration, Green Sky Trilogy, Middle Grade children’s book, new world, Erdlings and Kindar.