Mila 2.0

Gr 7 Up—Thirty days ago, Mila's mother moved them to the quiet Clearwater, Minnesota, to make a new start after the tragic death of her husband. Despite her grief, Mila is doing her best to find a place for herself, but it's hard to move on when she can't remember details of her past-including the fire that killed her father. When she injures her arm in an accident, she discovers a network of wires and tubes beneath her skin that hints at a history more incredible than she could have ever imagined. Mila doesn't remember her previous life because she doesn't have a past: she was created in a top-secret laboratory for the government. Now she and her mother are running for their lives and nothing makes sense-all she has are questions. Who is her mother? Did her father ever actually exist? Why was she created? And who is chasing her? In this cross between Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity (Richard Marek, 1980) and Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Holt, 2008), Mila's identity crisis and the resulting questions about what it means to be human could be the start of an interesting discussion. And while this first book in a planned trilogy is nearly 500 pages long, the action-packed plot will quickly propel even reluctant readers to the end.—Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO