A major plot point is that a young child at the orphanage is thought to be the AntiChrist, sometimes referred to by that name, and has an obsession with death and threats. This one was just not written with the same intent. That made it perfect for oft-overlooked low-high readers – young people reading well above their age but not yet ready for the mature content of much fiction. Unfortunately this wasn’t that.īecause Mieville was specifically trying to write for a young audience, his story remains clear of overt adult content despite an adult level of complexity.

I initially read hoping for a more complex, higher reading level but still MG appropriate diverse book to add for younger kids with high reading levels (like UnLunDun was on my last list). This book has an interesting dual nature of being both an engaging fantasy novel with several mysteries to unfold, and a very useful teaching tool for the process of learning to see systemic problems that are right in front of your face, so blatant they become invisible. I’ve been excited to read this one because a book about a 40 year old civil servant monotonously documenting magically gifted youth and slowly coming alive to the true meaning of his work and life is exactly the sort of thing I would have loved at the target age (and still do today). But what Linus finds at the island orphanage is so much more than he expected… The House In the Cerulean Sea by T.J. So when an unusual and extremely delicate situation arises, he’s the only real choice.

Tom Doherty Associates, Tor, Macmillian, New York, 2020.Īlthough not cruel or careless like many of his coworkers, Linus Baker is an uninspiring caseworker who’s given his life to the minute rules of the bureaucracy of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, down to the point of purchasing for personal reading (and occasionally quoting from memory) the official Rules and Regulations. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

House in the cerulean sea art