Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz

Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz

In a futuristic society run by an all-powerful Gov, a bender teen on the cusp of adulthood has choices to make that will change her life and maybe the world.

Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? Is it true what Sheila says, that she was deposited on Earth by the mysterious saurians? What are you? People ask, and Kivali isn t sure. Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither? Now she s in CropCamp, with all of its schedules and regs, and the first real friends she s ever had. Strange occurrences and complicated relationships raise questions Kivali has never before had to consider. But she has a gift the power to enter a trancelike state to harness the knowings inside her. She has Lizard Radio. Will it be enough to save her? A coming-of-age story rich in friendships and the shattering emotions of first love, this deeply felt novel will resonate with teens just emerging as adults in a sometimes hostile world.

Mrs. Schmatz, Mrs. Schmatz, Mrs. Schmatz, Mrs. Schmatz, Mrs. Schmatz, Mrs. Schmatz Estronsky and the UFO, Mousetraps, and Circle the Truth, which was voted a Best Children's Book of the Year by Bank Street College. For Bluefish, she received the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship in 2010. I started with Travis, a loner with a loving heart and an eye for beauty, she says of the book. He was enamored with the woods and swamp and had no wish to leave.

When Velveeta's bright scarves got his--and mine--attention, the three of us embarked on a journey into the realm of possibility. Pat Schmatz comes from a little town in Wisconsin.