Comments on: Apocalypses for Kids

Question: Apocalypses for Kids

acoutu — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:37:41 -0800

Help me remember this novel where all the adults die, leaving children to run the world.

As a pre-teen, I read a book where some sort of disease wipes out everyone over the age of 15. A girl (around 12?) is the central character and she somehow commandeers a school and an army of children. I think she has one or two siblings, a station wagon, and a 15-year-old friend with a learner's permit (who can drive). They learn to make molotov cocktails, set up a daycare and a school, and defend their empire against roving bands of children.

Can you help me remember this book, which would have probably come out in the 1970s or early 80s? I can't turn up anything in Google or Alibris. Thanks.

By: mojohand

mojohand — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:47:00 -0800

I got nothing on your book, but you might find it of interest drives a similiar premise drives one of the plot threads in the second volume of Joe Haldeman's Worlds trilogy, Worlds Apart.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:47:29 -0800

This book sounds right, but it was published in 2003 (?).

By: ny_scotsman

ny_scotsman — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:48:02 -0800

Day of the Triffids?

By: Neiltupper

Neiltupper — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:48:49 -0800

The Girl Who Owned a City

By: mojohand

mojohand — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:49:29 -0800

Sigh. Post Comment. Preview. Different buttons.
...but you might find it of interest that a similiar premise drives one of the plot threads....

By: lain

lain — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:56:51 -0800

Yeah, The Girl Who Owned a City was the one that I found.

By: fuzzbean

fuzzbean — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:59:37 -0800

(Not answering the question) but the TV series Jeremiah is based on a very similar premise.

By: Gungho

Gungho — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:00:06 -0800

Not day of the Triffids...That was a blind girl, a drunk and a scientist.

What was the Star Trek episode where there was a disease that prematurely aged the "grups"?

By: Rash

Rash — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:02:06 -0800

Miri.

By: advil

advil — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:12:57 -0800

It might have been emergence by david r palmer, though I'm not sure the plot matches entirely. By the way, have you seen this question?

By: advil

advil — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:14:40 -0800

and this thread, which is longer. The book may well be in there somewhere, if noone here comes up with it.

By: -harlequin-

-harlequin- — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:24:26 -0800

I can't remember the name, but you might find it via Southpark; there was an episode loosely based on it, where the kids discover thet can have their parents carted away for molesting them. Later, with the town run by children, Cartman makes a reference to The Before Times (when there were adults), a phrase that I think originates with the book, so maybe a google search for that phrase will find an occurance of it in original context?

By: -harlequin-

-harlequin- — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:26:13 -0800

Or maybe The before Times is a Mad Max reference? A show typically rolls a lot of parody into each episode, so I'm not sure that's the phrase to pick, but it's the only one I can remember :/

By: ruddhist

ruddhist — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:58:49 -0800

Double.

By: Sufi

Sufi — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:18:15 -0800

Yah that's "The girl who owned a city". I had read it myself a few years ago and recently had that same question.

I believe her brother was around 5 years old. They started out by closing up the surrounding homes in a neighborhood and using walkways on the roofs. Then they were forced into the local school by another gang of kids.
Another part consisted of the girl and her brother
driving around looking for food, eventually finding a grocery warehouse stocked with food.

It was a very interesting book.

By: acoutu

acoutu — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:18:05 -0800

Yes, it is The Girl Who Owned a City. I wasn't able to turn up the previous posts, but you guys are awesome. Looks like I mixed up some of the details (it's been a loooooong time).

I think the next major steps in my reading career were the Outsiders, 1984, and Brave New World. I wonder if reading The Girl had anything to do with that?

By: cellar

cellar — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:15:10 -0800

i don't know, but howard fast wrote an incredible story of kids who were taught to take over the world, trained and then taught to recognize each other

By: omiethenull

omiethenull — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 08:14:23 -0800

I believe much of the south park intertext referred to "Lord of the Flies". (amazon link)

And probably Children of the Corn and others. I haven't read "The Girl Who Owned a City", but it sounds interesting.

By: lain

lain — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:20:47 -0800

Brave New World was the first book to pop in my head when described the book. Books like Brave New World, 1984, and The Giver are awesome.. they really make you think about society.