Reviews for Children of Morwena

Age 13+ Children of Morwena is set in the future. When this story of survival and friendship begins, Leila and her family are happily living in a world very different from the one we know today.

Leila then finds herself alone when her family members are killed or separated by the Technocrats, a terror from the north. The children are sent away from Morwena before disaster strikes, but in the panic they become separated. The parents are never seen again.

The story unfolds as Leila searches for her sister Bonnie, whom she feels is alive and in a refuge for children. Leila battles many hardships in her search, including facing the ferls – feral young people who fend for themselves, often with violence, on the streets. The ‘lost’ children of Morwena are shunned by many people in the surrounding areas – as many refugees are in today’s society.

Parallel to Leila’s search is the story of Bonnie, who is fostered to an unkind household, and also the situations of their cousins and friends from Morwena. From street busking to ‘forced’ commune work in a drug plantation, Children of Morwena s a story of survival.

The book addresses issues of love and belonging in a hard world and of never giving up hope.

I first thought this was just another futuristic science fiction novel and was not keen to start. However, once I started reading the book, I found it to be very entertaining. I feel it will have a place on the library shelf for early adolescent readers.

In a world destroyed by war and pollution, people live without most of the modern conveniences, and weapons are banned. One nation, however, has broken the pact, and has launched a massive weapon of mass destruction, destroying the city of Morwena. In the aftermath of this devastating attack, the survivors struggle to find family and friends in a strange country that doesn’t want them. Leila and Andre are two orphans of Morwena, searching for their little sister and friends, lost in the panicked rush to escape.

Children of Morwena is a futuristic novel, written in 1st person prose, from the point of view of Leila, one of the main characters. I would recommend this book to anyone from about nine to ten years onward, as it is easy to read, and is written in a good text size.