THE LIST
By Patricia Forde
Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
Publishing date: August 8, 2017
I received a complimentary copy of THE LIST through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I love the whole idea of this book-A government limiting vocabulary to control its citizens’ thoughts and communication. What can go wrong in that society?
THE LIST is a well written, thought provoking book. The whole time I was reading, I kept wondering if this book was really a fiction story or soon to be reality in our time. At the beginning of the book, the people of Ark are allowed to use 700 words, but Noa, the evil leader of Ark, is now limiting the word list to 500. “Ark need less words…” “Words no good. Words bring trouble.” At the whim of the government, the people lost 200 words. Eventually if people no longer use words, they are forgotten. This is why the government is slowly taking away words and ideas. The government wants to control thoughts and words. Total control!
Some of the dialogue in this book is very unnerving. When the characters are following the rules and only using words on the List, it is like listening to a 3-4 year-old.
“I wait my master come.” “Words no here. I get.” “No go up there! No go!”
I found this was something that took a little getting used to. The fact that the dialogue is like this only stresses how important words are to our communication and survival.
I also like the idea of a wordsmith: a person that collects words. The wordsmith is saving words no longer on the List so in the future when the List is no longer used, people can be reintroduced to new words. Think about it, the older generations will know the older words but as they die off, the words will die with them. The younger generations will not know any different. See how easy ideas and words can be wiped away!
I think YA readers will really like this book. It is full of teens making choices, dangers, an evil government, unexpected heroes, plot twists and an ending that suggests a second book. With people questioning the United States government and all of the turmoil, young readers will be able to relate to Lette’s dilemma of totally trusting the government or questioning its leader’s motivation. They will also aspire to have Finn’s unfaltering commitment to do what is right, no matter the cost. THE LIST definitely will provide several starting points for conversation.
I am going to use the idea of the book for a writing assignment for my 6th graders. We are going to come up with a basic list 300-500 words and write a short story only using those words. After we have shared our “list” stories, we are going to go back and revise the story using words that are not on the list. We will share those and then discuss the difference. It would also be a great social experiment to limit the word usage in my class and see how the students communicate with such a limited vocabulary. They will also be wordsmiths collecting words they like in their notebooks Everyone has favorite words whether they are used in our speech, writing or just words we like. One of my favorite words is daffodils for no particular reason. I just like it. THE LIST provides endless possibilities of classroom connections.
The only thing I did not like about this book was there was no printed list of the 500 words that were the standard citizen’s vocabulary. I would like to see a list printed somewhere in the book or available online.
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