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Description edit
Set initially in a future shanty town in America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being dissembled for parts by a rag tag group of workers, we meet Nailer, a teenage boy working the light crew, searching for copper wiring to make quota and live another day. The harsh... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl. Ship Breaker won the Printz Award in... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Nailer, aka "Lucky Boy": The main character of the book, Nailer is a small-framed young man serving as the main character of the novel. Nailer is a member of the "light crew" of scavengers that go through beached oil tankers and other discarded vessels, looking for valuable minerals that can be recycled. Around 15,Nailer has his black hair and brown skin from his dead mother, and his pale blue eyes from his father, Richard Lopez.
- Pima: A teen scavenger, and Nailer's best friend. Daughter of Sadna, she is a person of character. "She never broke, and she always had your back."
- Sadna: Pima's mother, a woman of strong character. Sadna is a longtime scavenger on a "heavy crew." Sadna and Pima are Nailer's emotional support; his "family."
- Nita, aka "Lucky Girl": The sole survivor of her clipper's shipwreck, Nita Chaudhury is the daughter of a global shipping family. She is wealthy beyond Nailer's and Pima's imagination. She's a bit sassy but works her way into everyone's heart.
- Bapi: Supervisor of the ship breaking "light crew," Bapi is Nailer and Pima's boss, and is not known for his kindness or tolerance.
- Moby: A guard and cronie of Richard Lopez.
- Reni: A train jumping goon who was chopped to pieces by a wheel while he tried to jump a train drunk.
- Lucky Strike: Former salvage worker who struck oil and became rich. A sharp, benevolent wheeler-dealer with hands in everything from antibiotics to crystal slide.
- Richard Lopez: Nailer's father, and his only living blood relative. "A rib-thin conglomeration of ropy muscle and burning energy," Richard is a terrifying violent drug addict with rapidly shifting moods. Formerly a ring fighter, he is now the leader of a hard scavenge band. Obsessive, tenacious, and cunning, he is evil incarnate.
- Mr. Marn: The captain of the Ray, an enemy ship.
- Trimble: A half-man who works for Captain Candless.
- Blue Eyes: Member of Richard Lopez's crew, a hard stringy woman devoted to the Life Cult.
- Tool: A half-man. A frightening creature with yellow killer-eyes, Tool is a member of Richard Lopez's scavenger band. But Tool's loyalties are not traditional, and he has wisdom to offer.
- Patel: The family name of a wealthy business mogul who profits from ship breakers. Lucky Girl claims to be related to them.
- Nathaniel Pyce: Nita's treacherous "business-marriage uncle," whose people are pursuing her to gain control of the family business empire.
- "Dauntless": A clipper ship known by Nita to be loyal to her father. The ship that Nailer sails on in his quest to find Lucky Girl.
- Candless: Captain of the "Dauntless." A man of courage, humor and keen insight.
- Reynolds: Midshipman of the"Dauntless," and Captain Candless' first mate,"With a long black braid running down her back, short and stocky and with a pistol in her belt..."
- "Pole Star": A cross-global schooner that serves both as a trading vessel and as a warship. Loyal to Pyle, this ship pursued Nita's clipper into the "city killer".
- Moon Girl: Add a description of this character.
- Sloth: Backstabbing "friend"/assistant to Nailer
Quotes edit
Setting & Locations edit
Gulf Coast, somewhere east of New Orleans on Bright Sands Beach.
- The "Teeth": Near Bright Sands Beach, city ruins completely covered by the bay. Its jutting pieces of concrete are only visible at low tide.
- Orleans II: The 'big city' that Nailer visits with Lucky Girl and Tool. Orleans II was built beyond the "drowned city" of New Orleans.
- Bright Sands Beach: The beach that Nailer, Pina and the rest of their crew and families call home. "A tarred expanse of sand and puddled seawater, littered with the savaged bodies of other oil tankers and freighters."
Organizations edit
- Lawson & Carlson: The company that makes cash out of the ship breakers.
- Libeskind, Brown and Mohanraj: Makers of clippers and other world class sailing vessels
- Boston Freight: A shipping firm
- Patel Global Transit: A shipping conglomerate.
First Sentence edit
Nailer clambered through a service duct, tugging at copper wire and yanking it free.
Table of Contents edit
25 unnamed chapters
Glossary edit
- Black Ling: A fortifying premium hard liquor
- City killer: A hurricane; a storm that can destroy a city.
- Rust Saint: The scavenge god, the deity that scavengers pray to.
- Half men: Aka "Dog faces," an engineered species, half-dog, half-man. Monstrous in appearance, physically strong and intelligent, half-men are often used as bodyguards to the powerful, or as killers in war.
- Harvesters: Medical buyers of body parts
- Life Cult: A religious cult that operates on blood offerings.
- Swank: Something rich, costly, precious. Or, a person of the wealthy classes.
- Scavenge: Anything that can be broken up and salvaged for profit.
- Quota: Amount of product that must be collected at the end of the day.
Themes & Symbolism edit
Series & Lists edit
This is book 1 of 1 in Ship Breaker. (standard series)
This book is in 2013 Iowa High School Battle of the Books. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Paolo Bacigalupi (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: May, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-316-05621-2
Page Count: 326
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: May, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-316-05621-2
Page Count: 326
Awards edit
- Michael L. Printz Award (January 2011: Literary excellence in young adult literature)
- National Book Award (Finalist)
- Locus Award (2011: Best Young Adult Book)
- Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award (Finalist, 2012: Young Adult)
- Nebula (Finalist, 2010: Andre Norton Award)
- Sakura Medal (Finalist, 2012)
- Texas Lone Star Reading List (2011)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PZ7.B132185 Sh 2010
- Dewey: Add the Dewey Classification.
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Young AdultsSome violence and references to drugs, but approriate for mature 8th graders and higher. There is pervasive use of mature language. Adults will love it!
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