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convince the colony at a reenactment of the
Settler's escape to Greenland with several allies who know of Rowen's actions. Just as Thea and her allies are about to lose the argument, Peter arrives with the dog, whose eyes are open. That, coupled with the fact that Peter is an eye adept, the first in a hundred years, convinces the colony to listen to Thea instead of Rowen. The novel ends eight months later as the people of Gracehope are slowly educated on global warming and the dangers of staying in their colony.
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wrote. After Stead created a revised copy of the novel in 2005, she sent it to Lamb again and a contract was drawn up. More revisions were made in order to make the new world created in the novel easier to understand. Stead found it hard "to maintain a sense of 'the whole'. Over and over I mapped out the book out for myself using post-its in a manila folder, trying to get a sense of where the tension went". The novel took three years to complete.
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used to live in
England. They possessed unusual abilities, such as extremely good vision and hearing, leading them to be called 'eye adepts' and 'ear adepts', respectively. These powers were seen as sorcery, prompting Grace, the leader of the Settlers, to bring the Settlers under the ice in Greenland where they could live in peace.
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praised the two readers for their performance which "engages listeners, and they are both adept at creating a different voice for each character and moving seamlessly between them". Miller also found the novel useful for starting a discussion on topics such as "political subterfuge and propaganda to
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in 2002, but had no experience prior to that. The first draft turned out confusing and unorganized. To help her, Stead met with Wendy Lamb, an editor Stead had met in a workshop a few years before. Lamb suggested that Stead meet with a "critique group" who would help read and revise the drafts Stead
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To convince the rest of the colony, Peter and Thea plan to use a piece of mythology, that a dog with four white paws would be supposedly born when it was time to leave. Such a dog had been born several days ago but has yet to open his eyes. Thea decides to proceed without using the dog and tries to
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While walking around her house, Thea finds a map in her room of
Gracehope. The map shows a tunnel leading onto the surface. Thea and her cousin Mattias find the tunnel and meet Peter who helps them back to Gracehope. Reaching Gracehope, Peter realizes that several talismans of the people are in the
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follows the adventure of two protagonists, Peter, who lives with his mother and father in New York but is in
Greenland for his father's research, and Thea, who lives in an underground colony in Greenland called Gracehope. Gracehope was formed hundreds of years ago by a group called the Settlers who
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Stead drew inspiration from many sources in order to create the novel. As a child growing up in a big city, she was interested in the small towns which made her think "that in smaller places, everybody, even the kids, had special identities, where as in a city people are pretty anonymous". An idea
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After the revisions were completed, much of the plot stayed the same, but several events in the original draft were cut out to strengthen the whole book. Stead combined two characters into one, having a stronger outline and also cut out several scenes for minor characters. In the end, Stead found
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Stead began writing the novel in 2002, but her first draft was confusing and unorganized. To help her, she met editor Wendy Lamb who advised her to meet with a small group of people who would help critique the novel. After three years of work, Stead finished the second draft and met with Lamb who
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said, "It is a testament to the storytelling that the existence of this parallel world and the convergence of Peter and Thea's stories, told in separate chapters, are both credible and absorbing. Young readers will find this a journey worth taking."
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found that "With the impending threat of global warning as an ominous backdrop, teens from very different worlds find they have much in common". In the novel, Peter finds an underground civilization beneath
Greenland that is sinking as a result of
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found the two main characters well written and the city of
Gracehope well structured. While, Smith found the city's origin unbelievable, she recognized that few people would care about that and compared the threat in
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by
Jenifer Brabander praised the easy shifts from American to English accents made by both narrators. Brabander also found the tone given to Thea appropriate and compared the novel to Stead's second work,
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356:. Hubert criticized the slow beginning and flaws in the mythology and structure of the underground world, but still felt that "the icy setting and global-warming theme are well realized".
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found the novel to be a "Thoroughly enjoyable arctic adventure", praising how the adventure tests the main characters' courage as they learn the truth of both worlds. Vicky Smith from
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explains how global warming is melting
Gracehope and Peter and Thea's attempt to persuade the people to leave. The novel addresses the effects of global warming as a theme.
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classified the novel as an "ice-age mystery" as both Peter and Thea "discover one another's worlds as well as the truth about themselves". Connie
Tyrrell Burns from
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with his father and mother for research on global warming, and Thea, who lives in
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has been made in an audiobook containing six disks and a length of seven hours and six minutes. The audiobook was released by the
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also listed the novel as a "slow-to-unfold mystery combining elements of science and history with an appealing note of fantasy".
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is a "great discussion starter of issues ranging from global warming to shunning and building a new society".
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Haegele, Katie (June 28, 2007). "'First Light': Beautiful book about 2 worlds, realities tenuously linked".
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and read by David Ackroyd and Coleen Marlo for the parts of Peter and Thea, respectively. Kathy Miller from
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began to form for a hidden society that also served as a small town.
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Burns, Connie Tyrrel (August 2007). "First Light By Rebecca Stead".
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Reviewers also noted the environmental theme in the book.
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that the revisions helped to make the book more cohesive.
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recognized the global warming theme and also classified
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Brabander, Jenifer M. (May–June 2010). "First Light".
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Miller, Kathy (May 2010). "Multimedia Review/Audio".
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699:Categories
446:January 1,
397:References
353:Downsiders
685:0018-5078
657:0362-8930
634:0006-7385
609:0018-5078
584:0000-0019
576:EBSCOhost
530:0362-8930
502:0042-6598
469:EBSCOhost
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
