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Fearless | 
 enlarge | Author: Tim Lott
Publisher: Candlewick
Category: Book
List Price: $15.99
Buy New: $2.85
You Save: $13.14 (82%)
New (31) Used (23) from $1.97
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 874648
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0763636371
EAN: 9780763636371
ASIN: 0763636371
Publication Date: October 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A Whitbread Award-winning novelist tells a chilling dystopian tale about a heroic girl prepared to risk everything in the pursuit of justice.
In the not-too-distant future, the world is safe from terrorists, the streets are clean, and girls labeled "juvies" or "mindcrips" have been hidden away behind the smartly painted exterior of the City Community Faith School. Their birth names are forgotten and replaced with a letter and number, but they give each other nicknames like Tattle or Stench or Little Fearless. As they slave away at chores, Little Fearless, who is actually the bravest girl in the school, tells the other girls stories, stories about the day their families will return for them. Little Fearless’s own hope and conviction spur her on a dangerous adventure — a bold and unthinkable plan that will either save the imprisoned girls or mean the end of Little Fearless herself, or both.
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| Customer Reviews:
 great read October 25, 2008
My 12 year old daughter loved this book! Very interesting and original plot, very appropriate for adolescent age children. A story with good moral value.
 Escape May 4, 2008
Think of the orphanage in the musical Annie. Now take away the music, take away the levity, and prepare yourself for Fearless.
The outside world thinks that the institute is a place of rehabilitation and education, but it is actually more of a prison and workhouse. The young girls who have been placed there have, for the most part, forgotten their real names and families. Their names have been replaced them with letters and numbers, stating their rank in the levels X, Y, or Z, but they have given each other nicknames, such as Beauty, Tattler, Stargazer, and Little Fearless, the book's heroine.
Little Fearless is aptly named, because she will have to stand up to some bigwigs and intimidating adults in order to free her peers. The tough man who runs the place sticks to the policies of those even higher than he, the cruel persons who run the entire city. Little Fearless devises a plan to escape from the institute and tell others in the city what is happening to her and the other children.
Had I not seen the ending coming, or had the ending not been quite as implausible-yet-predictable, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more.
Girl armed with tears bravely tries to share the truth about her institutionalization with skeptical prospective rescuers. February 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As the story begins, a young girl is spirited away from her mother (but not before conveniently being given sentimental treasures which she'll need later) and placed in the City Community Faith School for Retraining, Opportunity, and Hope, known to most as the Institute, to live with 1,000 other females. Residents are referred to by their assigned numbers and are forbidden from using their given names. But unbeknownst to the local Cityzens, the "school" is actually a penitentiary. And while many of its inhabitants are actually (p 39) "young criminals who had run afoul of the curfews and antisocial orders...from the City Boss," others (p 40) "had been seized from homes where their parents were said to be terrorists." The girls are treated poorly and forced to work six days a week as launderers.
The story's main character, Little Fearless, aka Y73, is habitual nose picker with a lack of care for cleanliness. But her skills as a storyteller and her mismatched eyes (p 88) "one as blue as the polar ice, the other as brown as the earth on a newly turned field" distinguish her from the rest. She eventually hatches a plan to tell a community member what the Institute really is in hopes that the truth will literally set them free to be reunited with their families. Although successful in the intentionally brief escape attempt itself, she isn't able to get help, but only to plant a seed of doubt about the actual conditions at the "school." LF is eventually punished and mostly forgotten and only much later are her efforts rewarded.
Not unexpectedly, the writing style of Fearless is pretty simple. And there are some nicely portrayed issues, especially involving religion and governmental control over citizens. But two items related to plot make no sense: parents who don't even try to keep their children safe (LF's mother especially) and the actions of the Controller (who runs the Institute) in not demanding an immediate head count after learning of an escape: a simple science fi story with a brave young heroine. Better: The Giver by Lois Lowery.
A very moving book! February 13, 2008
I read this book to my son every night, a chapter at a time, until finished. Near the end, he couldn't wait to go to bed so we could find out what was going to happen to "Little Fearless".
This book is a great eye-opener for today's kids who think they have it rough, because they have to study, and do chores. It gives kids a different perspective of how other kids might not have it as easy as they do.
My son was in tears at some points of the book, as he became so attached to the characters in the story. When the tears came, he laughed out loud and said, "I can't believe I'm crying! It's only a book!" This book is very well written, and the story quickly grabs your attention, so that you don't want to put it down.
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