The Country of Ice Cream Star

Eighty or so years ago, a plague decimated the population of the world. Humans survived, but the disease lives on, and everyone succumbs by the time they hit their early twenties. In this destroyed civilization, 15-year-old Ice Cream Star desperately seeks a cure for her older brother, who is starting to show symptoms of the dreaded “Posies.” When her band of children catches a supposedly 30-year-old “roo” who claims a cure exists, Ice Cream, having taken on leadership in her brother’s place, leads them away from their home and into the unknown.

People are talking about The Country of Ice Cream Star, and it’s easy to see why. Sandra Newman’s imaginative novel takes the now common theme of a dystopian future to an entirely new place, and the world she envisions is truly unique. Some aspects of this book are bound to be controversial, such as the fact that all these surviving children happen to be black, or that the “roo” is a white man from Russia (a country that seems to be bent on invading other countries, even in the post-apocalyptic future). From the concept to the very language in which the book is written (it’s not surprising that language has decayed after generations of children never make it far into adulthood), this book draws readers in and demands their full attention.