List, The

After the fall of society, Ark is divided between those who believe John Noa is their savior and those who believe he is trying to control them. Letta, a follower of Noa, is the Wordsmith’s apprentice; they manage Ark's List—a controlled vocabulary of 500 words. When she meets a stranger who is looking for the List words, but also somehow knows the banned words, she discovers a new way of thinking and learns that the people she believed in are more dangerous than those she was taught to fear. This fantasy novel for grades 5-7 would be at home for class study, read-aloud, lit circle, or class library, and deals with dystopian society, protectionism, and the consequences of blindly following a leader.